Investing.com - The New Zealand dollar jumped over 1% against its U.S. counterpart on Thursday, as Thursday's disappointing U.S. manufacturing data weighed on the greenback and investors eyed upcoming data on U.S. employment.
NZD/USD hit 0.7928 during late Asian trade, the pair's highest since September 26; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.7864, advancing 1.03%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.7736, the low of September 30 and resistance at 0.7961, the high of September 26.
The greenback pulled away from one-year highs recently hit against the kiwi after the Institute for Supply Management on Wednesday said its index of purchasing managers fell to 56.6 last month from a reading of 59.0 in August.
Investors were now looking ahead to Friday’s U.S. nonfarm payrolls report, which was expected to show that the U.S. economy added more than 200,000 jobs for a sixth successive month in August.
A report by payroll processor ADP on Wednesday showed that the U.S. private sector added 213,000 jobs last month, slightly ahead of expectations for jobs growth of 210,000.
The kiwi was higher against the Australian dollar, with AUD/NZD shedding 0.36% to 1.1176.
Also Thursday, official data showed that Australian building approvals increased by 3.0% in August, exceeding expectations for a 1.0% rise. Building approvals for July were revised to a 2.1% gain from a previously estimated 2.5% increase.
A separate report showed that Australia's trade deficit narrowed to A$0.79 billion in August from A$1.08 billion in July, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated deficit of A$1.36 billion.
Analysts had expected the trade deficit to narrow to A$0.700 billion.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to release the weekly report on jobless claims.