Investing.com - The New Zealand dollar traded lower against its U.S. rival during Thursday’s Asian session despite a stronger-than-expected HSBC China flash manufacturing PMI for August.
In Asian trading Thursday, NZD/USD fell 00.06% to 0.7843. The pair was likely to find support at 0.7827, the low of August 6 and resistance at 0.8070, Tuesday's high.
The China PMI data rose to a four-month high of 50.1 in August, beating expectations for a reading of 48.2. Reading above 50 indicate expansion. The July reading was an 11-month low of 11.1.
China's manufacturing growth has started to stabilise on the back of modest improvements of new business and output. This is mainly driven by the initial filtering through of recent fine-tuning measures and companies’ restocking activities, despite the continuous external weakness. We expect further filtering through, which is likely to deliver some upside surprises to China's growth in the coming months," said Hongbin Qu, Chief Economist, China & Co. Head of Asian Economic Research at HSBC in a report.
The kiwi has been under pressure since the start of the Asian session as it now appears evident the Federal Reserve will slow its USD85 billion-per-month bond-buying program at some point this year.
"A few members emphasized the importance of being patient and evaluating additional information on the economy before deciding on any changes to the pace of asset purchases," according to the Fed minutes released during Wednesday’s U.S. session.
That can be interpreted as some Fed members wanting to take a wait-and-see approach to tapering. However, "Almost all participants confirmed that they were broadly comfortable" with the committee reducing "the pace of its securities purchases later this year," the minutes indicated.
Elsewhere, NZD/JPY rose 0.50% to 77.07 while AUD/NZD gained 0.12% to 1.1455.
In Asian trading Thursday, NZD/USD fell 00.06% to 0.7843. The pair was likely to find support at 0.7827, the low of August 6 and resistance at 0.8070, Tuesday's high.
The China PMI data rose to a four-month high of 50.1 in August, beating expectations for a reading of 48.2. Reading above 50 indicate expansion. The July reading was an 11-month low of 11.1.
China's manufacturing growth has started to stabilise on the back of modest improvements of new business and output. This is mainly driven by the initial filtering through of recent fine-tuning measures and companies’ restocking activities, despite the continuous external weakness. We expect further filtering through, which is likely to deliver some upside surprises to China's growth in the coming months," said Hongbin Qu, Chief Economist, China & Co. Head of Asian Economic Research at HSBC in a report.
The kiwi has been under pressure since the start of the Asian session as it now appears evident the Federal Reserve will slow its USD85 billion-per-month bond-buying program at some point this year.
"A few members emphasized the importance of being patient and evaluating additional information on the economy before deciding on any changes to the pace of asset purchases," according to the Fed minutes released during Wednesday’s U.S. session.
That can be interpreted as some Fed members wanting to take a wait-and-see approach to tapering. However, "Almost all participants confirmed that they were broadly comfortable" with the committee reducing "the pace of its securities purchases later this year," the minutes indicated.
Elsewhere, NZD/JPY rose 0.50% to 77.07 while AUD/NZD gained 0.12% to 1.1455.