Investing.com - The New Zealand dollar trimmed gains against its U.S. counterpart on Thursday, after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand left interest rates unchanged but signalled possible rate hikes for next year.
NZD/USD pulled away from 0.7872, the pair's highest since December 2, to hit 0.7822 during early European trade, steady for the day.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.7727, the low of December 4 and resistance at 0.7913, the high of December 1.
In a widely expected move, the RBNZ held its benchmark interest rate at 3.50%, but added that "some further increase in the official cash rate is expected to be required at a later stage."
Commenting on the decision, RBNZ Governor Graeme Wheeler said that "gradual increases in interest rates will still be needed as the economy expands at around 3% a year and the country's jobless rate falls."
Meanwhile, the greenback remained supported after last week’s strong U.S. jobs report for November prompted investors to bring forward expectations for the first hike in interest rates to mid-2015 from September 2015 ahead of the data.
Investors were looking ahead to next week’s policy statement from the Fed amid speculation that policymakers could drop an assurance that interest rates will stay low for a "considerable time".
The kiwi was lower against the euro, with EUR/NZD up 0.17% to 1.5944.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to release data on retail sales, as well as the weekly report on jobless claims.