Investing.com - The Australian edged higher against its U.S. counterpart on Tuesday, while the New Zealand dollar declined as markets were jittery ahead of the Federal Reserve policy meeting due to begin later in the day.
AUD/USD edged up 0.11% to 0.7396.
Markets seem to have pushed back expectations on the timing of the next rate hike by the U.S. central bank after a dismal U.S. employment report for May, which showed the slowest rate of jobs growth since September 2010.
In a speech last week, Fed Chair Janet Yellen indicated that interest rates won’t rise until uncertainty over the economic outlook is resolved.
Earlier Tuesday, the National Australia Bank said its business confidence index fell to 3 in May from a reading of 5 the previous month.
NZD/USD declined by 0.42% to trade at 0.7032, the lowest since June 9.
Meanwhile, market sentiment remained under pressure as downbeat data from China and uncertainty over the upcoming Brexit vote continued to weigh.
On Monday, data showed that Chinese growth in fixed-asset investment fell below 10% for the first time since 2000 in the January to May period.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, edged up 0.12% to 94.53.