Investing.com - The Australian and New Zealand dollars moved higher against their U.S. counterpart on Tuesday, following positive comments by the Reserve Bank of Australia and as disappointing U.S. data continued to weigh broadly on the greenback.
AUD/USD gained 0.42% to 0.7705.
In the minutes of its August policy meeting, the RBA said economic growth was expected to pick up to be above estimates of potential by mid 2017.
This statement differed from the central bank’s statement made on August 5, forecasting a pickup in growth in 2018.
The upbeat outlook contradicted previous expectations for further rate cuts by the RBA. At the beginning of the month, the central bank lowered its benchmark interest rate to a record-low 1.5%.
NZD/USD advanced 0.65% to trade at 0.7262.
Meanwhile, the greenback remained under broad selling pressure after a recent string of disappointing U.S. economic reports fueled concerns over the strength of the economy and dampened expectations for a rate hike before the end of the year.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was down 0.48% at 95.12, the lowest since August 3.