Investing.com - The Australian and New Zealand dollars moved higher against their U.S. counterpart on Wednesday, recovering from recent losses as demand for the greenback weakened amid speculation the next Federal Reserve head could be less hawkish than expected.
AUD/USD gained 0.38% to 0.7865, off the previous session's two-and-a-half month lows of 0.7786.
Fed Governor Jerome Powell and former governor Kevin Warsh were both interviewed at the White House last week to replace current Fed Chair Janet Yellen next February.
While the two men are seen as serious candidates, Powell is considered as more dovish than Warsh, who has criticised the Fed's bond-buying programme in the past.
The dollar strengthened earlier in the week on speculation that Warsh might be the leading candidate to replace Yellen.
The greenback has also been supported recently by hopes for U.S. tax reform after the Trump administration outlined plans for a sweeping overhaul of the U.S. tax code last week.
NZD/USD rose 0.28% to trade at 0.7180, pulling away from Tuesday's one-month trough of 0.7147.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was down 0.20% at 93.22 by 02:15 a.m. ET (06:15 GMT), off a one-and-a-half month high of 93.78 reached on Tuesday.