Investing.com - The Australian and New Zealand dollars were higher against their U.S. counterpart on Wednesday, despite the release of downbeat Australian data as the greenback paused after its recent rally to multi-year highs.
AUD/USD gained 0.49% to 0.7438, the highest since November 17.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics earlier said that construction work done dropped 4.9% in the third quarter, compared to expectations for a 1.7% fall.
Construction work done declined by 3.1% in the second quarter, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated 3.7% drop.
NZD/USD rose 0.21% to trade at 0.7078.
The greenback mildly weakened but still remained supported by expectations that President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to ramp up fiscal spending and cut taxes will spur economic growth and inflation.
Faster growth would spark inflation, which in turn would prompt the Fed to tighten monetary policy a faster rate than had previously been expected.
The U.S. dollar has also been underpinned by bets that the U.S. central bank will almost certainly raise interest rates next month.
Fed Chair Janet Yellen on Thursday reiterated that a rate hike “could well become appropriate relatively soon.”
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 100.97, not far from last Friday’s 14-year peak of 101.54.