Investing.com - The Australian dollar edged higher against its U.S. counterpart on Thursday, helped by the release of upbeat Australian employment data, while the New Zealand dollar tunbled over 1% as sentiment on the greenback improved.
AUD/USD edged up 0.10% to 0.7661.
Earlier Thursday, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said the number of employed people rose by 26,100 in March, beating expectations for an increase of 20,000. The number of employed people fell by 700 in February, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated 300 gain.
The report also showed that Australia’s unemployment rate ticked down to 5.7% last month from 5.8% in February, confounding expectations for a rise to 5.9%.
NZD/USD lost 1.05% to trade at 0.6847.
Sentiment on the greenback improved after Wednesday’s upbeat Chinese trade data eased concerns over the outlook for global economic growth.
Official data showed that China’s exports jumped 11.5% from a year earlier in March, the first increase since June.
Meanwhile, the commodity currencies remained under pressure as oil prices continued to decline for a second consecutive day.
OPEC warned earlier in the day of slowing demand, while Russia signaled that there would only be little commitments at the upcoming meeting between major oil producers in Doha next Sunday.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.20% at 95.00, the highest since April 6.