Investing.com - The Australian and New Zealand dollars edged higher against their U.S. counterpart on Thursday, as sentiment on the greenback remained fragile despite encouraging minutes from the Federal Reserve's latest meeting and upbeat U.S. manufacturing activity data.
AUD/USD was up 0.13% at 0.7845, just off a two-and-a-half month high of 0.7857 hit overnight.
The U.S. dollar briefly recovered after Fed policymakers acknowledged, in the minutes of the Fed's December meeting released Wednesday, that the U.S. labor market and economic activity remain strong, despite persistently low inflation.
The minutes seemed to suggest that the central bank will continue to raise rates gradually but the pace could pick up if inflation rises.
Separately, the Institute of Supply Management said its manufacturing purchasing managers' index rose to 59.7 last month from 58.2 in November, confounding expectations for a downtick to 58.1.
NZD/USD gained 0.38% to trade at 0.7118.
Market watchers were now looking ahead to U.S. nonfarm payrolls data due on Friday.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was steady at 91.85 by 02:10 a.m. ET (06:10 GMT).