Investing.com - The Australian and New Zealand dollars were little changed and hovering near multi-month lows against their U.S. counterpart on Monday, as the greenback remained broadly supported by optimism over the U.S. economy and expectations for an upcoming U.S. rate hike.
AUD/USD held steady at 0.7337, off a five-month low of 0.7311 hit overnight.
The greenback has remained supported amid expectations that President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to ramp up fiscal spending and cut taxes will spur economic growth and inflation.
Faster growth would spark inflation, which in turn would prompt the Fed to tighten monetary policy a faster rate than had previously been expected.
The U.S. dollar has also been boosted by bets that the U.S. central bank will almost certainly raise interest rates next month.
Fed Chair Janet Yellen on Thursday reiterated that a rate hike “could well become appropriate relatively soon.”
NZD/USD was almost ucnchanged at 0.7010, after hitting a four-month trough of 0.6985 earlier in the day.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was down 0.13% at 101.28m just off Friday’s fresh 14-year peak of 101.54.