Dollar strengthens

TOKYO: The dollar edged higher on Wednesday as investors awaited the outcome of the Federal Reserve´s policy meeting for clues about future tightening, while the beleaguered New Zealand dollar came roaring back to life on strong jobs data.

The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, added 0.1 percent to 94.680, though it remained shy of Friday´s three-month high of 95.150.The New Zealand dollar stole the Asian spotlight, soaring 0.9 percent to $0.6906 after touching a one-week high of $0.6915, boosted by data showing the country´s jobless rate sank more than expected to a nine-year low of 4.6 percent.

The kiwi had come under pressure in recent weeks on fears of the new Labour-led coalition government´s left-leaning policies, including a clamp down on foreign investment and migration.

"The kiwi was oversold on fiscal uncertainty and about what the Labour-led government would be enacting, so the market was short, and prone to squeezes," said Sue Trinh, head of Asia FX strategy at RBC Capital Markets in Hong Kong. "The reality is that the government is far from the kind of extreme ideology that you see in some places, like in Europe," she said.