Investing.com - The New Zealand dollar traded higher against its U.S. counterpart during Tuesday's Asian session following the release of some decent retail sales data.
In Asian trading Tuesday, NZD/USD climbed 0.44% to 0.8288. The pair was likely to find support at 0.8253, the low of May 9 and a more than one-month low and resistance at 0.8363, the high of March 22.
The kiwi gained ground against the greenback after Statistics New Zealand said real retail sales there rose 0.5% in the first quarter compared with a fourth-quarter gain of 1.9%. Including price changes, New Zealand retail sales rose 0.7%, but economists expected an increase of 1.1%.
Motor vehicle and parts retailing, and pharmaceuticals were among the industries that helped boost New Zealand's April retail sales.
On Monday in New Zealand, industry data earlier showed that the house price index rose 0.8% in April, after a 2.4% increase the previous month. The U.S. offered up its own retail sales data on Monday.
In U.S. economic news, U.S retail sales rose 0.1% in April following a decline in March. The increase was helped by 1% rise in auto sales. Excluding auto sales, U.S. retail sales fell 0.1% in April. That data was published by the U.S. Commerce Department.
The kiwi has come under pressure due to the resurgent greenback and news last week that the Reserve Bank of New Zealand has been intervening in the forex market in an effort to weaken the kiwi.
However, New Zealand economic data has for the most part been solid recently and certainly not slack enough for RBNZ to consider an interest rate reduction.
Elsewhere, NZD/JPY rose 0.15% to 84.15 while AUD/NZD fell 0.12% to 1.2051.
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.