Investing.com - The Australian dollar gained ground against its U.S. counterpart on Tuesday, after the release of upbeat Australian data and positive comments by Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Glenn Stevens, while the New Zealand dollar held steady.
AUD/USD gained 0.42% to 0.7612.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics earlier reported that the house price index rose 0.2% in the fourth quarter, beating expectations for an uptick of 0.1%, after a 2.0% increase in the three months to September.
In addition, RBA Governor Glenn Stevens said in a speech on Tuesday that Australia's economy was "adjusting quite well" to lower commodity prices and had more fiscal and policy scope to respond to a global downturn than most countries.
"Even with interest rates at already low levels, and public debt higher than it was, there would, in the event of a serious economic downturn, be more room to ease both monetary and fiscal policy than in many, indeed most, other countries," Stevens said.
NZD/USD was steady at 0.6757.
Meanwhile, sentiment on the greenback remained fragile after the Federal Reserve said last week that it is likely to raise interest rates only twice this year – and not four times, as initially estimated.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was little changed at 95.37.