Investing.com - The New Zealand dollar dropped to three-and-a-half week lows against its U.S. counterpart on Tuesday, after the release of lower than expected trade balance data from New Zealand, while Monday's upbeat U.S. data continued to support the greenback.
NZD/USD hit 0.8519 during late Asian trade, the pair's lowest since April 3; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.8520, slipping 0.21%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.8439, the low of March 12 and resistance at 0.8621, the high of April 22.
Official data earlier showed that New Zealand's trade surplus widened to NZ$920 million in March, from a surplus of NZ$793 million in February, whose figure was revised down from a previously estimated surplus of NZ$818 million.
Analysts had expected the trade surplus to widen to NZ$937 million last month.
Meanwhile, demand for the greenback remained supported after data on Monday showed that U.S. pending home sales rose for the first time in nine months in March, indicating that the housing market is picking up.
The National Association of Realtors reported that pending home sales jumped 3.4% last month, easily surpassing expectations for a 1% gain. Pending home sales for February were revised to a 0.5% drop from a previously reported decline of 0.8%.
The kiwi was lower against the euro, with EUR/NZD rising 0.32% to 1.6276.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to publish a report compiled by the Conference Board on consumer confidence.