Investing.com - The Australian dollar rose to two-month highs against its U.S. counterpart on Thursday, boosted by the release of strong Australian trade data, while the New Zealand dollar held steady.
AUD/USD rose 0.23% to 0.7313.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics said the trade deficit narrowed to A$2.937 billion in January from A$3.524 billion in December, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated deficit of A$3.535 billion.
Analysts had expected the trade deficit to narrow to A$3.100 billion in January.
The report came a day after data showed that Australia’s gross domestic product grew 0.6% in the fourth quarter, beating expectations for 0.4%.
Year-on-year, Australia’s economy grew 3.0% in the last quarter, above expectations for 2.5%.
NZD/USD was little changed at 0.6680.
The greenback remained broadly supported after payroll processing firm ADP said non-farm private employment rose by 214,000 last month, surpassing expectations for an increase of 190,000.
The data came after a string of upbeat U.S. economic reports, adding to expectations for the Federal Reserve to hike interest rates again this year.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.13% at 98.34, not far from the previous session’s one-month high of 98.59.