Investing.com - The New Zealand dollar edged up against its U.S. counterpart on Monday, but remained within close distance of Friday's four-and-a-half year trough as upbeat U.S. employment data continued to support demand for the greenback.
NZD/USD hit 0.7042 during late Asian trade, the session low; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.7052, up 0.13%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.7023, Friday's low and resistance at 0.7152, Friday's high.
The greenback strengthened broadly after the Labor Department reported on Friday that the U.S. economy added 280,000 jobs in May, ahead of economists forecast for 220,000. The unemployment rate ticked up to 5.5% from 5.4% in the previous month.
April’s payrolls report was revised to show that 221,000 jobs were created.
Hourly earnings increased 0.3% in May, after a 0.2% increase in April.
The upbeat data, particularly the pick-up in wage growth underlined the view that the economy is on track to rebound after a weak first quarter and bolstered expectations that the Federal Reserve could start to hike interest rates at its September policy meeting.
The kiwi was higher against the Australian dollar, with AUD/NZD falling 0.18% to 1.0801.