NZD/USD fighting to stay afloat after losing the 0.73 handle

• Kiwi couldn't maintain the early week's gains, but downside momentum is being restrained.
• A quiet Asia session with little data could see the newly-invigorated bears come back for more.

The NZD/USD is struggling to recover after chopping lower in rough Tuesday trading and is settling near 0.7260 ahead of the Tokyo markets.

New head at the RBNZ steps into the driver's seat

Adrian Orr formally stepped into his new shoes as Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) today, and he recently brought with him a revamping of the RBNZ model and Policy Target Agreement (PTA). The RBNZ's PTA now includes a mandate to address employment in New Zealand on top of maintaining price stability, and the decision-making process will be slowly turning over into a group voting process in 2019. Currently, the RBNZ board advises on all decisions, but all final decision-making is left to whoever is sitting as Governor.

Macro data for the Kiwi is a low-impact affair today, with the ANZ's Activity Outlook and Business Confidence due at 00:00 GMT and both reports are unlikely to drive much action as markets catch their breath following Tuesday's broad sell-off, but the US will be dropping GDP figures later at 12:30 GMT alongside Core Personal Consumption Expenditures.

NZD/USD Levels to watch

As FXStreet's own Falvio Tosti noted earlier, "the NZD/USD is trading above its 100 and 200-period simple moving average and is currently in a bull channel characterized by higher highs and higher lows. The bull trend on the hourly chart stays in effect as long as the market doesn’t break below the 0.7232 swing low. Support is seen at the 0.7260 level which is the intraday swing low and a break below this level might open the gates to the 0.7240 level with the 100 and 200-period simple moving average. Intraday resistance is seen at 0.7280 supply level and at the key handle of 0.73."