Investing.com - The New Zealand dollar edged up against its U.S. counterpart on Thursday, to trade close to a one-month high after the release of strong New Zealand trade balance data, while demand for the greenback remained broadly under pressure.
NZD/USD hit 0.7577 during late Asian trade, the session high; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.7565, adding 0.12%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.7479, Wednesday's low and resistance at 0.7712, the high of January 21.
In a report, Statistics New Zealand said that the country's trade balance swung into a surplus of NZ$56 million last month from a deficit of NZ$195 million in December, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated deficit of NZ$159 million.
Analysts had expected the trade deficit to hit NZ$162 million in January.
Meanwhile, the greenback remained under pressure amid lowered expectations for a mid-year U.S. rate hike after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen in testimony to the Senate Banking Committee Tuesday that it was "unlikely" that economic conditions would warrant an interest rate increase for "at least the next couple of FOMC meetings".
In a second day of testimony to the Financial Services Committee on Wednesday Yellen reiterated this message, saying that wage growth and inflation must rise before the bank can hike rates, despite signs of improvement in the labor market.
The kiwi was also higher against the euro, with EUR/NZD edging down 0.22% to 1.5001.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to release data on the consumer price index, as well as reports on initial jobless claims and durable goods orders.