NZD/USD surrenders upbeat NZ CPI-led gains to 2-week tops

The NZD/USD pair faded NZ CPI-led bullish spike and has now surrendered majority of its early strong gains to near two-week tops. 

Earlier on Tuesday, the pair built on last week's strong recovery move from 4-month lows and got an additional boost from today's domestic data, showing consumer prices increased 0.5% in the third quarter. 

   •  NZ: CPI rose 0.5% in Sep quarter, annual inflation 1.9% - Westpac

The up-move, however, faced rejection near the 0.7200 handle and was being capped by persistent US Dollar buying interest. Meanwhile, a subdued action around the US Treasury bond yields extended some support to higher-yielding currencies and helped limit the downslide, at least for the time being. 

Today's US economic docket features the release of import/export price index, along with industrial production and capacity utilization data, albeit the key focus would remain on the NZ GDT price index.

   •  NZD/USD: Upside risks - Westpac

Technical levels to watch

A follow through retracement back below the very important 200-day SMA support near the 0.7160 region could accelerate the slide towards 0.7130-25 intermediate support en-route the 0.7100 handle.

On the upside, the 0.7200 handle remains a key hurdle and is closely followed by 50-day SMA resistance near the 0.7225-30 region.