Investing.com - The Australian and New Zealand dollars moved higher against their U.S. counterpart on Monday, after the release of upbeat Australian data and as Friday’s disappointing U.S. jobs report lowered expectations for an upcoming rate hike.
AUD/USD gained 0.36% to 0.7599.
Earlier Monday, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said that company operating profits increased by 6.9% in the second quarter, compared to expectations for a 2.0% rise.
Company operating profits declined by 4.4% in the first quarter, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated 4.7% drop.
NZD/USD climbed 0.58% to trade at 0.7335.
Meanwhile, the greenback remained under pressure after data on Friday showed that the U.S. economy added 151,000 jobs in August, disappointing expectations for an increase of 180,000.
The U.S. unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.9% this month, confounding expectations for a downtick to 4.8%.
The report also showed that average hourly earnings rose 0.1% in August, below expectations for a 0.2% increase.
The disappointing data dampened expectations for a near-term rate hike, as Fed officials recently indicated that the pace of interest rate increases will be data-dependent.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was down 0.24% at 95.64.