Investing.com - The Australian and New Zealand dollars moved higher against their U.S. counterpart on Thursday, as sentiment on the greenback became more fragile ahead of U.S. data due later in the day and a speech by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen on Friday.
AUD/USD rose 0.21% to 0.7629.
Investors are waiting to see if Yellen will restate the hawkish view of the economy expressed by Fed officials last week or echo the minutes of the Fed’s July meeting, which indicated that officials are divided on when to raise rates.
Market participants were also looking ahead to reports on U.S. jobless claims and durables goods orders, due later Thursday, for further indications on the strength of the economy.
NZD/USD eased up 0.08% to trade at 0.7319, re-approaching a recent 15-month high of 0.7347.
The commodity currencies found some support as oil prices bounced back on Thursday, despite an unexpected rise in U.S. stockpiles last week.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was steady at 94.68.