Investing.com - The Australian and New Zealand dollars rose to ten-month highs against their U.S. counterpart on Tuesday, boosted by higher oil prices and as the minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s latest meeting signaled that interest rates are likely to remain on hold for some time.
AUD/USD climbed 0.59% to a 10-month high of 0.7756.
The commodity currencies were boosted by rising oil prices, as an oil worker strike in Kuwait cut the country’s crude production nearly in half.
Meanwhile, the minutes of the RBA’s April meeting showed that the central bank is in no hurry to cut interest rates and said that it will continue to watch employment trends.
"Continued low inflation would provide scope to ease monetary policy further, should that be appropriate to lend support to demand," the minutes said.
The RBA also mentionned its concerns regarding the strength of the Australian dollar, saying "members noted that an appreciating exchange rate could complicate progress in activity rebalancing towards the non-mining sectors of the economy."
NZD/USD advanced 0.76% to trade at 0.7001, also a ten-month peak.
Sentiment on the greenback remained fragile after reports on Friday showed that U.S. industrial production fell more than expected in March and consumer sentiment deteriorated slightly this month.
The reports underlined the view that the Federal Reserve is likely to stick to a cautious approach on future interest rates increases.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was down 0.17% at 94.29, the lowest since April 13.