Investing.com - The Australian and New Zealand dollars were hovering near multi-month highs on Thursday, after the release of strong Australian retail sales data and as the greenback came under broad selling pressure following news China may halt its U.S. bond purchases.
AUD/USD were up 0.33% at 0.7869, after hitting a three-month high of 0.7886 overnight.
Earlier Thursday, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said retail sales increased by 1.2% November, beating expectations for an uptick of 0.4% and after a 0.5% rise the previous month.
NZD/USD held steady at 0.7198, just off the previous session's four-month peak of 0.7229.
Meanwhile, the greenback weakened broadly following reports China could slow or halt its U.S. treasury purchases, with the greenback on track to post its biggest single-day drop against the Japanese yen in seven weeks.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was little changed at 92.17 by 02:05 a.m. ET (06:05 GMT).