The New Zealand dollar rose against most major currencies on Wednesday, following the central bank monetary policy decision and statement.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand held the interest rate at 0.25% unchanged, and kept the size of the asset purchase program at $100 billion.

The bank stated that the lending and spending program would continue due to the existing economic conditions, and will continue until June 2022.

The central bank showed readiness to cut interest rates further if needed, and stressed that it will continue to closely monitor the economic conditions, especially inflationary pressures, disruption of supply chains and the rise in oil prices.

As of 15:41 GMT, NZD/USD rose 1.3% to 0.7146, after hitting a high of 0.7150 and a low of 0.7047.

The US Energy Information Administration reported today that crude inventories fell 5.9 million barrels to 492.4 million during the past week, while analysts forecast a drop by 2.9 million barrels.

Gasoline stocks rose 0.3 million to 234.9 million barrels, and distillate stocks fell 2.1 million to 143.5 million barrels.

While the American Petroleum Institute (API) revealed yesterday in preliminary data that the US crude inventories fell 3.6 million barrels during the same period.

Nickel prices fell on Wednesday, despite the US dollar's drop against its peers, amid expectations of a shortage in the global supply of several industrial metals.

The Russian mining company Nornickel said last month that its production of nickel, copper, platinum and palladium would be lower by 15-20% than its primary target.

The company, which is the world's largest producer of palladium, added that based on calculations of February mine closures due to water problems, its production of palladium, nickel, copper and platinum would drop by 710,000 ounces.

The dollar index fell against a basket of major currencies by 0.1% to 91.7 points as of 13:39 GMT, after hitting a high of 91.8 points and a low of 91.6 points.

As of 13:50 GMT, nickel spot future contracts fell 0.2% to $16,192.9 per tonne.

The main US stock indices rose on Wednesday, as investors focused on the quarterly business results for the first quarter of 2021.

Several US banks reported today their quarterly earnings results amid expectations of further growth in the coming period due to optimism about the US GDP.

Data showed yesterday that the US consumer price index rose by 0.6% during the past month, in the largest monthly jump since August 2012, beating forecasts of a 0.5%.

The rising inflation sparked investors' worries about the US Treasury bond yield.

As for stocks, Dow Jones rose 0.5% or 176 points to 33,851 as of 14:03 GMT, Nasdaq fell 0.1% or 10 points to 13,985, and S&P 500 rose 0.1% or 3 points to 4,144.