Investing.com - The Australian and New Zealand dollars rallied against their U.S. counterpart on Wednesday, as a rise in oil prices lent strong support to the commodity currencies, although disappointing Chinese trade data limited gains.
AUD/USD jumped 1% to 0.7671, the pair’s highest since March 31.
Oil prices surged to a five-month high on Tuesday following reports Russia and Saudi Arabia had already reached a deal on an oil output freeze.
The report came ahead of a highly-anticipated meeting between major oil producers from the Middle East and Russia scheduled in Doha next Sunday.
NZD/USD advanced 0.96% to trade at 0.6925, also the highest since March 31.
Gains were capped however, as data earlier showed that China’s trade surplus narrowed to $29.86 billion in March from $32.59 billion the previous month. Analysts had expected the trade surplus to narrow to $30.85 billion last month.
Chinese exports increased at an annual rate of 11.5% last month, while imports dropped by 7.6%.
China is Australia’s biggest export partner and New Zealand’s second biggest export partner.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.21% at 94.24, still close to the previous session’s eight-month low of 93.62.