Forexpros – The New Zealand dollar was lower against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday, as risk sentiment weakened after the Federal Reserve held back from implementing new stimulus measures.
NZD/USD hit 0.7542 during late Asian trade, the pair’s lowest since November 29; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.7548, shedding 0.25%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.7478, the low of November 28 and resistance at 0.7673, the high of December 13.
At its final policy meeting of the year, the Fed noted modest improvement in the U.S. economy but added that market turbulence in the face of Europe’s debt woes posed a big risk.
Fed officials reiterated that short-term interest rates are likely to stay close to zero until mid-2013 at least.
Sentiment was also hit after German Chancellor Angela Merkel reiterated her opposition to increasing the EUR500 billion lending limit for the permanent euro zone bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism, which should come into effect from the middle of next year.
Elsewhere, the kiwi was down against the Australian dollar with AUD/NZD rising 0.09%, to hit 1.3248.
Earlier Wednesday, a report showed that the Australian Westpac Banking Corporation index of consumer sentiment fell to its lowest level since August in November, tumbling 8.3% after a 6.3% increase the previous month.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to produce official data on import prices and crude oil stockpiles.
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