Investing.com - The New Zealand dollar was higher against its U.S. counterpart on Monday, but gains were expected to remain limited as Friday's upbeat U.S. employment report continued to lend broad support to the greenback.
NZD/USD hit 0.7380 during late Asian trade, the session high; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.7383, rising 0.27%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.7287, the low of February 4 and resistance at 0.7447, the high of February 6.
The greenback remained supported after the Labor Department reported on Friday that the U.S. economy added 257,000 jobs in January, far more than the 234,000 forecast by economists. December’s figure was revised to 329,000 from a previously reported 252,000.
The unemployment rate ticked up to 5.7% last month from December’s 5.6% hourly earnings and the participation rate both saw increases in January.
The upbeat jobs report was seen as strong enough to indicate that the Federal Reserve will remain on track to start raising rates from near zero levels as early as June.
The kiwi was higher against the Australian dollar, with AUD/NZD retreating 0.66% to 1.0526.
Also Monday, data showed that Australia's newspaper job advertisements dropped 6.7% last month, after a 3.0% increase the previous month.
Internet job ads in Australia rose 1.5% in January, the report also showed, after a 1.8% gain in December.