Investing.com - The New Zealand dollar slipped against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday, re-approaching recent six-year lows after disappointing New Zealand employment data, although trading remained calm ahead of Friday's U.S. nonfarm payrolls report.
NZD/USD hit 0.6518 during late Asian trade, the session low; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.6525, shedding 0.24%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.6503, the low of July 20 and resistance at 0.6618, Tuesday's high.
Statistics New Zealand reported on Wednesday that the number of employed people rose by 0.3% in the second quarter, disappointing expectations for a 0.5% gain, after an increase of 0.7% in the three months to March.
The report also showed that New Zealand's unemployment rate ticked up to 5.9% in the last quarter from 5.8% in the first quarter of 2015, in line with expectations.
Meanwhile, investors continued to eye the U.S. government nonfarm payrolls report, due to be released on Friday. The consensus forecast is that the report will show jobs growth of 215,000 last month.
Monthly jobs gains above 200,000 are seen by economists as consistent with strong employment growth.
The greenback has been boosted recently by expectations that the improving U.S. economy will prompt the Federal Reserve to raise short term interest rates in the coming months, possibly as early as September.
The kiwi was steady against the euro, with EUR/NZD at 1.6641.