Investing.com - The Australian and New Zealand dollars slid lower against their U.S. counterpart on Thursday, as markets digested Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s latest comments and as lower oil prices weighed on the commodity currencies.
AUD/USD lost 0.31% to 0.7647, off Wednesday’s eight-month peak of 0.7706.
The greenback had weakened broadly after Yellen said late Tuesday that global risks to the U.S. economy, including low oil prices and uncertainty over China justified taking a cautious approach to tightening monetary policy.
Made at the Economic Club of New York, the comments contrasted with recent remarks by some Fed officials who indicated that the bank could act as soon as next month to raise interest rates.
NZD/USD declined 0.38% to trade at 0.6896, after hitting a nine-month high of 0.6963 on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, commodity-related currencies came under pressure as oil prices moved lower after data showing that U.S. stockpiles rose to a record-high last week sparked fresh concerns over a supply glut.
Earlier Thursday, data showed that the ANZ business confidence index for New Zealand fell to 3.2 in February from 7.1 the previous month.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.22% at 95.00, rising off the previous session’s five-month low of 94.56.