Investing.com - The New Zealand and Australian dollars fell to one-week lows against their U.S. counterpart on Thursday, despite the release of upbeat New Zealand trade data as hopes for a U.S. rate hike next month continued to support the greenback.
NZD/USD slid 0.36% to 0.6679, the lowest since March 16.
Statistics New Zealand earlier reported that the trade surplus widened to NZ$339 million in February from NZ$13 million in January, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated surplus of NZ$8 million.
Analysts had expected the trade surplus to widen to NZ$50 million last month.
AUD/USD declined 0.64% to trade at 0.7486, also the lowest level since March 16.
The greenback remained supported after Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker said late Tuesday that the U.S. central bank should raise interest rates as early as next month if the U.S. economy continues to improve.
Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said he expects two more rate hikes before the years end, if the economy remains on track.
The comments came a day after Atlanta Federal Reserve President Dennis Lockhart signaled that the Fed could hike interest rates in April.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.26% at 96.32, the highest since March 16.