Investing.com - The Australian and New Zealand dollars moved higher against their U.S. counterpart on Monday, as markets took a breather after sending the greenback to a three-week high against a basket of other major currencies.
AUD/USD added 0.19% to 0.7830, off Friday's two-month low of 0.7759.
The greenback had broadly strengthened after the U.S. Congress passed a two-year budget agreement early Friday morning, ending a brief government shutdown.
The agreement is set to boost federal spending by almost $300 billion and suspend the debt ceiling for a year.
Government activities were temporarily shut down when a midnight deadline to pass the U.S. budget deal was missed on Thursday due to a prolonged speech by Senator Rand Paul, who said the bill would “loot the Treasury.”
NZD/USD was up 0.12% at 0.7267.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was down 0.22% at 90.02 by 02:00 a.m. ET (06:00 GMT), after climbing to a three-week high of 90.45 on Friday.