NZD/USD meanders around 0.6820s ahead of Fed minutes

• The NZD/USD edges higher in the North American session, up 0.31%.
• US ADP National Employment Report showed that the US economy added 807K, new private jobs.
• NZD/USD has a downward bias, though upside risks remain.

On Wednesday, the New Zealand dollar advances for the second day in the week, despite better than expected US ADP National Employment figures. The pair is trading at 0.6829, eight pip short of the daily high at the time of writing.

US ADP Private Employment Report

Before Wall Street opened, Automatic Data Processing (ADP) company reported that private payrolls in the US surged by 807K, doubled than the 400K foreseen by market participants. Meanwhile, October’s figures were revised lower from 534K to 505K.

The report could prelude Friday’s US Nonfarm Payrolls, which is expected to show that the US economy created 400K new jobs, higher than the 210K reported in December. The Unemployment Rate is expected to improve also, from 4.2% down to 4.1%.

Later in the day, the Federal Reserve will release the FOMC December’s 2021 minutes.

NZD/USD Price Forecast: Technical outlook

The NZD/USD daily chart depicts the pair as downward biased. The daily moving averages (DMAs) reside above the spot price, with the 50-DMA intersecting the 38.2% Fibonacci level, drawn from October’s 2021 cycle highs, down to December’s 2021 lows, around 0.6899-0.6905.

The NZD/USD first resistance would be the R1 daily pivot at 0.6834. A breach of the latter would expose the January 3 daily high at 0.6856, followed by the confluence of the 38.2% Fibonacci level and the 50-DMA around 0.6899-0.6905.

On the flip side, the NZD/USD bull’s first line of defense would be the confluence of the 100 and the 200-hourly simple moving averages (SMAs) around 0.6814-16. A break under that zone would expose the daily pivot at 0.6799, followed by the S1 daily pivot point at 0.6774.