Investing.com - The Australian and New Zealand dollars dropped against their U.S. counterpart on Tuesday, as investors locked in gains after the two commodity-related currencies rallied on higher oil prices.
AUD/USD declined 0.60% to 0.7423, after hitting fresh eight-month highs of 0.7486 on Monday.
The Aussie was boosted after oil prices moved above $37 a barrel on Monday amid ongoing hopes for production cuts.
Earlier Tuesday, the National Australia Bank said its business confidence index remained unchanged at 3 in February and that January’s reading was revised from a previously estimated reading of 2.
NZD/USD slid 0.56% to trade at 0.6765, still close to last week’s two-month peak of 0.6822.
Data also showed on Tuesday that China’s trade surplus narrowed to $32.59 billion in February from $63.29 billion the previous month, compared to expectations for a trade surplus of $50.15 billion.
Chinese exports dropped 25.4% last month, while imports fell by 13.8%.
Meanwhile, the greenback remained vulnerable after last Friday’s mixed U.S. jobs data dampened expectations for a U.S. rate hike this month.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was down 0.12% at 97.00, the lowest since February 22.