NZD/USD touches new multi-year highs above 0.7160 boosted by upbeat NZ data

• NZD/USD is posting strong gains ahead of US data.
• Upbeat GDP figures from New Zealand provided a boost to NZD.
• US Dollar Index stays deep in the negative territory below 90.00.

After closing the day modestly higher on Wednesday, the NZD/USD pair gained traction during the Asian trading hours on Thursday and advanced to its highest level since April 2018 at 0.7165. As of writing, the pair was up 0.73% on the day at 0.7161.

Impressive NZ GDP data lift NZD/USD

Earlier in the day, the data published by Statistics New Zealand showed that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the third quarter expanded by 0.4% on a yearly basis. This reading followed the second quarter’s contraction of 11.3% and came in much better than the market expectation for a decline of 1.3% to provide a boost to the kiwi.

Additionally, FOMC Chairman Jerome Powell reiterated on Wednesday that they remain open to increasing the size of asset purchases and triggered a fresh USD selloff. 

Ahead of Initial Jobless Claims, Housing Starts and Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Survey data from the US, the US Dollar Index is down 0.58% on the day at 89.93, the lowest level in nearly 32 months.

Meanwhile, the S&P 500 Futures are up 0.6% on the day, suggesting that the greenback is unlikely to attract investors with risk flows remaining in control of financial markets in the second half of the day.

In the early trading hours of the Asian session, Trade Balance data from New Zealand will be looked upon for fresh catalysts.

Technical levels to watch for