NZD/USD holds comfortably above 0.74 handle, FOMC decision awaited

The NZD/USD pair remained well bid through early NA session and is currently placed at session tops near the 0.7430 region.

The pair on Tuesday stalled its corrective slide 10-month highs and attracted some fresh buying interest near the 0.7400 handle. The pair gained some fresh traction on Wednesday and benefitted from today's release of NZ trade balance data. 

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According to the data released on Wednesday, New-Zealand posted a fourth consecutive monthly trade surplus of 242 million NZ$ as compared to a surplus of 74 million (revised lower from 103 million) reported in the previous month. 

Meanwhile, a softer tone around the US Treasury bond yield and lacklustre US Dollar further boosted demand for higher-yielding currencies and remained supportive of the pair's strong bid tone.

Next on tap would be the release of new home sales data from the US, which is likely to be overshadowed by today's key event risk - FOMC decision, due to be announced later during the NY trading session. The keenly awaited monetary policy statement would help determine the pair's near-term trajectory.

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Technical levels to watch

Any further up-move is likely to confront resistance near mid-0.7400s, above which the pair is likely to head towards testing Sept. 2016 swing high resistance near 0.7475 level before aiming to conquer the key 0.75 psychological mark.

On the flip side, weakness below 0.7415 level might continue to find some fresh buying interest near the 0.7400 handle, below which the pair is likely to extend the corrective slide towards 0.7370-65 horizontal support.