Investing.com - The New Zealand dollar rose off two-and-a-half month lows against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday, as investors locked in profits from the greenback's recent rally sparked by expectations for a U.S. rate hike later this year.
NZD/USD hit 0.7268 during late Asian trade, the session high; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.7255, gaining 0.35%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.7182, the low of March 11 and resistance at 0.7322, Tuesday's high.
The greenback gained broad support after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen reiterated Friday that the bank still expects to start raising interest rates later in the year if the economy continues to improve as expected.
The U.S. dollar was also boosted after the U.S. Commerce Department said on Tuesday that new home sales jumped 6.8% to 517,000 units last month, compared to expectations for a 0.5% gain.
The Commerce Department also reported that core durable goods orders, excluding volatile transportation items, inched up 0.5% in April, beating forecasts for an increase of 0.4%.
In addition, the Conference Board said its index of consumer confidence rose to 95.4 this month from a reading of 94.3 in April.
The kiwi was little changed against the Australian dollar, with AUD/NZD at 1.0695.
Earlier Wednesday, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said that construction work done dropped 2.4% in the first quarter, compared to expectations for a 1.5% decline. The change in construction work done for the last quarter of 2014 was revised to a 0.6% slip from a previously estimated 0.2% downtick.