NZD/USD maintains the highest spot in 7-week as New Zealand GDP please buyers

• Buyers extended support as upbeat New Zealand GDP held the optimism triggered through FOMC.
• 0.6920 resistanceline still becomes a challenge for bulls.

NZD/USD surged more than 30 pips to after Statistics New Zealand released fourth-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) figures during early Asian session on Thursday. The pair maintains its early-day high to seven-week top after the US Fed meeting results. US Jobless claims and Philadelphia Fed manufacturing survey are in focus now.

New Zealand fourth quarter (Q4) 2018 GDP (QoQ) matched 0.6% market consensus versus 0.3% prior while the growth indicator rose 2.3% on a yearly basis against 2.5% forecast and 2.6% during the Q4 2017.

Ahead of the GDP result, the NZD/USD pair rallied to the highest in seven weeks as the US Federal Reserve disappointed greenback bulls by favoring no rate hikes during the year 2019 in its quarterly interest-rate forecast. The FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) left headline Fed rate unchanged, as expected, whereas the Chairman Jerome Powell signaled balance sheet adjustments to end soon.

Next up in the trader’s radar will be the US initial jobless claims for the week ended on March 15 coupled with Philadelphia Fed manufacturing survey results for the current month.
Initial jobless claims are likely to have shrunk by 225K versus 229K prior whereas manufacturing gauge could reverse earlier -4.1 contraction figure with +4.5 number.

NZD/USD Technical Analysis

Unless clearing nine-month-old resistanceline, at 0.6920, chances of the NZD/SD pair’s pullback to 0.6825 can’t be denied. However, 61.8% Fibonacci retracement level of June – October decline at 0.6815, followed by 0.6800 round-figure may challenge the quote’s additional downside.

Alternatively, an upside clearance of 0.6920 enables the pair to aim for 0.6970 and 0.7000 numbers to the north with 0.7020/25 and 0.7060 being next in focus.