Forexpros – The New Zealand dollar was lower against its U.S. counterpart on Monday after European leaders agreed to strengthen economic integration in the euro zone but failed to reassure markets on the handling of the region’s debt crisis.

NZD/USD hit 0.7704 during late Asian trade, the daily low; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.7695, declining 0.77%.

The pair was likely to find support at 0.7575, the low of November 30 and resistance at 0.7838, the high of December 2.

At a two-day summit last week, European leaders decided to pursue stricter budget rules for the single currency bloc and to provide up to EUR200 billion in bilateral loans to the International Monetary Fund to help tackle the crisis.

But investors remained concerned as no policies aimed at boosting the region’s ailing economy or any drawn-out plans to implement changes in the euro zone were unveiled at the summit.

Markets were also jittery after Standard &Poor’s placed the credit ratings of 15 euro zone members on negative watch and said it would announce any ratings changes “as soon as possible” after Friday’s meeting.

The kiwi was also fractionally higher against the Australian dollar with AUD/NZD inching down 0.03%, to trade at 1.3174.

Earlier Monday, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said that the country’s trade surplus rose less-than-expected to AUD1.60 billion in November, while a separate report showed that home loans in Australia rose more-than-expected to 0.7%.

Later in the day, the U.S. was to publish official data on the federal budget balance.

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