Forexpros – The New Zealand dollar was unchanged against the U.S. dollar on Wednesday, swinging between small gains and losses as investors turned to highly anticipated Italian bond auctions later in the day.
NZD/USD hit 0.7756 during late Asian trade, the pair’s highest since December 23; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.7732, edging up 0.03%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.7665, the low of December 22 and resistance at 0.7816, the high of December 6.
With most investors already away on year-end leave, trading volumes were low, resulting in subdued trade.
Italy was scheduled to sell EUR9 billion euros of 179-day bills and EUR2.5 billion euros of zero-coupon 2013 securities later Wednesday. The country will also auction EUR8.5 billion euros of debt due in 2014, 2018, 2021 and 2022 on Thursday.
Ahead of the auctions, markets were jittery as the yield on Italy’s ten-year bonds remained close to the 7% threshold, a level widely considered unsustainable and above which other euro zone governments had been forced to seek bailouts.
Elsewhere, the kiwi was fractionally higher against the Australian dollar with AUD/NZD dipping 0.06%, to hit 1.3130.
Earlier Wednesday, data showed that industrial production in Japan fell 2.6% in November, while retail sales declined 2.3%, underscoring the negative effects of a strong yen and a global slowdown on the domestic economy.
Japan is New Zealand’s second largest export partner.
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