By Wayne Cole
SYDNEY, Nov 14 (Reuters) - The Australian and New Zealand dollars clung to gains on Wednesday after signs of a possible thaw in Sino-U.S. trade relations prompted a bout of short-covering, though both remained within recent well-worn ranges.
Figures on Australian wage growth showed some pick-up but not enough to alter the outlook for steady rates, while Chinese economic figures were too mixed to provide much direction.
The Aussie AUD=D3 held at $0.7222, having bounced from a trough of $0.7164 on Tuesday on news of a resumption of trade talks between Beijing and Washington. kiwi dollar NZD=D3 stood at $0.6776, after likewise rallying from a low of $0.6709.
"Although an improvement US-China relationship is positive for the Aussie, it remains unable to move back above $0.73, reflecting the high degree of market uncertainty at the moment," said Rodrigo Catril, a senior FX strategist at National Australia Bank.
"From a technical perspective, AUD remains confined to its recent $0.7021 to $0.7302 range with offshore events the big determinants," he said.
The latest economic news out of China was a mixed bag with October retail sales missing forecasts but a better performance from industrial output and fixed-asset investment. data showed wage growth inched up to an annual 2.3 percent in the third quarter, the fastest pace since 2015 but bang in line with market forecasts. pick-up is still painfully slow and did nothing to change expectations the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will keep interest rates steady for months yet.
"While our forecasts incorporate a firmer labour market and continued modest erosion of slack going forward, we struggle to get annual wages growth much above 2.25-2.5 percent over the next 12-18 months," said Su-Lin Ong, head of Australian strategy at RBC Capital Markets.
"The data continue to suggest little urgency to start policy normalization," she said.
Australian government bond futures firmed in line with Treasuries, partly on wagers the recent sharp slide in oil prices would temper future inflation globally.
The three-year bond contract YTTc1 added 1 tick to 97.845, while the 10-year contract YTCc1 rose 2 ticks to 97.2800.
Yields on New Zealand government bonds 0#NZTSY= were down between 1.5 and 2.5 basis points across the curve. (Editing by Richard Borsuk)