Investing.com - The Australian and New Zealand dollars moved higher against their U.S. counterpart on Thursday, after the release of upbeat Australian employment data and after President Trump said the greenback was ‘too high’.
AUD/USD climbed 0.89% to 0.7590, the highest since April 5.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics said the number of employed people increased by 60,900 in March, blowing past expectations for an increase of 20,000.
The number of employed people rose by 2,800 in February, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated decline of 6.400.
The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 5.9% last month, in line with expectations.
Elsewhere, data showed that China’s exports increased by an annualized rate of 16.4% in March, while imports climbed 20.3%.
China is Australia’s biggest export partner and New Zealand’s second biggest export partner.
NZD/USD advanced 0.50% to trade at 0.7005, the highest since April 4.
Meanwhile, the greenback weakened after U.S. President Donald Trump told the Wall Street Journal that the dollar "is getting too strong" and that he would prefer the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates low.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was steady at a two-week low of 100.02.