The New Zealand dollar advanced today on hopes that demand from the United States would support prices for raw materials as the US economy shows signs of robust recovery.

Yesterday, reports showed that US leading indicators advanced 0.7 percent in February from a month ago and unemployment claims fell from 353,000 to 348,000 last week. Today, a report is expected to show that new home sales grew from 321,000 to 326,000 in February from January. The Standard & Poor’s GSCI Index of commodities gained 0.5 percent.

NZD/USD rose from 0.8102 to 0.8122, following the earlier advance to 0.8166, and NZD/JPY advanced from 66.88 to 67.10 as of 11:17 GMT today, while earlier it reached 67.42.

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