The New Zealand dollar held steady against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday, after the release of upbeat New Zealand employment data, while the Australian dollar moved lower ahead of the Federal Reserve’s upcoming policy decision.
NZD/USD held steady at 0.6936, off a one-week high of 0.6968 hit overnight.
Earlier Wednesday, Statistics New Zealand said the number of employed people rose by 1.2% in the first quarter, beating expectations for a 0.8% gain and after an increase of 0.8% in the three months to December.
The unemployment rate ticked down to 4.9% in the first quarter from 5.2% in the previous quarter, confounding expectations for an unchanged reading.
AUD/USD declined 0.62% to trade at 0.7487.
Meanwhile, sentiment on the greenback strengthened ahead of the Fed’s highly-anticipated monetary policy decision due later in the day.
While the central bank was widely expected to hold interest rates, investors were eyeing any hints on the pace of future rate hikes.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.14% at 98.91.
