Investing.com - The New Zealand dollar was steady against its U.S. counterpart on Tuesday, as demand for the greenback regained support after Friday's U.S. jobs report and markets eyed the release of more U.S. data later in the day.
NZD/USD hit 0.8511 during late Asian trade, the session high; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.8524, inching up 0.01%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.8462, the low of August 1 and resistance at 0.8557, the high of July 29.
The greenback remained supported below recent highs after the latest U.S. employment report on Friday showing that jobs growth slowed slightly in July prompted investors to curtail expectations on the timing of a possible rate hike by the Federal Reserve.
The kiwi was little changed against the Australian dollar, with AUD/NZD easing up 0.02% to 1.0953.
Also Tuesday, official data showed that Australia's trade deficit narrowed to A$1.68 billion in June, from A$2.04 billion in May whose figure was revised down from a previously estimated deficit of A$1.91 billion.
Analysts had expected the trade deficit to narrow to A$1.90 billion in June.
Separately, the Reserve Bank of Australia left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at a record low 2.50%, as expected, and reiterated that it expects borrowing costs to remain low for an extended period of time.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to publish data on factory orders, while the Institute of Supply Management was to release data on service sector growth.