Investing.com - The Australian dollar edged lower against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday, while the New Zealand dollar gained some ground after relatively disappointing Chinese trade data and as higher oil prices lent support to the commodity currencies.
AUD/USD slipped 0.16% to 0.7447, off the one-month highs of 0.7463 hit overnight.
Data earlier showed that China’s trade surplus widened to $49.98 billion in May from $45.56 billion the previous month. Analysts had expected the trade surplus to widen to $58.00 billion last month.
The report showed that exports dropped at an annualized rate of 4.1% in May, while imports declined by 0.4%.
China is Australia’s biggest export partner and New Zealand’s second biggest export partner.
NZD/USD rose 0.20% to trade at 0.6988, the highest since May 3.
Oil prices continued to rise for a third consecutive session on Wednesday, as supply disruptions in Nigeria continued to support.
Meanwhile, sentiment on the greenback remained fragile after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen indicated on Monday that the U.S. central bank won’t be raising interest rates until uncertainty over the economic outlook is resolved.
Yellen said she expects the economic recovery to continue but gave no indications on the timing of a next rate increase.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was steady at 93.78, the lowest since May 11.