Forexpros – The New Zealand dollar was sharply lower against its U.S. counterpart on Thursday, after downbeat New Zealand growth data and a report showed that Chinese manufacturing activity contracted for a fifth consecutive month.
NZD/USD hit 0.8064 during late Asian trade, the pair’s lowest since March 15; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.8082, dropping 0.91%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.8040, the low of January 25 and resistance at 0.8192, the high of January 25.
The kiwi came under pressure after official data showed earlier that New Zealand’s gross domestic product rose less-than-expected in the fourth quarter, rising 0.3% after a 0.7% increase the previous quarter.
Analysts had expected the GDP to rise 0.6% in the fourth quarter.
Meanwhile, preliminary data from HSBC showed that China’s manufacturing purchasing managers’ index fell to 48.1 in March, from a final reading of 49.6 the previous month, as new orders dropped to their lowest level since November.
The data underlined concerns over a possible slowdown in growth in the world’s second largest economy.
Elsewhere, the kiwi was sharply lower against the euro with EUR/NZD jumping 0.97%, to hit 1.6358.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to publish official data on initial jobless claims and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was due to speak.
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