Forex - Kiwi jumps against greenback after NBNZ report

Forex Pros – The kiwi jumped against its U.S. counterpart on Monday after a survey showed that New Zealand businesses were the most upbeat about their own prospects in May in 11 years.

NZD/USD hit 0.6831 during European morning trade, gaining 0.6%. The pair was likely to find resistance at 0.704, the high of May 18, and support at 0.656, the low of May 25.

Earlier Monday, the National Bank of New Zealand said in a monthly report that while business confidence dropped slightly in May. But the bank said a net 45% of companies expected their own business to improve in the next 12 months, compared with a 43% optimism level in the April survey.

The kiwi also surged versus the yen on Monday, with NZD/JPY advancing 1.069% to reach 62.48.

Also Monday, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, spoke of the importance of emerging economies in securing the global economic recovery.

Speaking via video link to a conference in Seoul, Bernanke said: "Improvements in emerging market policies and policy frameworks ... have ramifications beyond the emerging market economies themselves."