Investing.com - The Australian and New Zealand dollars moved lower against their U.S. counterpart on Thursday, after mixed data from Australia and New Zealand and as the greenback remained supported by the previous session's upbeat U.S. economic reports.
AUD/USD slipped 0.15% to 0.7891, the lowest since August 25.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported on Thursday that private capital expenditure increased by 0.8% in the second quarter, beating expectations for a 0.3% rise. Private capital expenditure increased bby 0.9% in the first quarter, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated 0.3% gain.
Separately, Reserve Bank of Australia Philip Lowe said “the current market pricing implies a greater probability of a rate rise, than a rate reduction”.
“It also implies that the next move in interest rates is a long way out,” he added.
NZD/USD dropped 0.76% to trade at a nearly three-month trough of 0.7147.
Data also showed on Thursday that the ANZ Business Confidence Index for New Zealand slipped to 18.3 this month from 19.4 in July.
Meanwhile, the greenback remained supported after data showed U.S. economic growth for the second quarter was revised higher expected.
A separate report showed that the U.S. private sector added more jobs than expected in July.
The greenback had come under broad selling pressure following North Korea's missile launch over on Monday.
But market sentiment improved as U.S. President Donald Trump's reaction to the North Korean aggression was seen as more moderate than in the past. The U.S. President did warn that "all options are on the table" however.
Market participants were also monitoring developments in Texas, as flooding due to Tropical Storm Harvey has shut nearly a fifth of U.S. oil-refining capacity.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.19% at 93.01 by 02:20 a.m. ET (06:20 GMT), the highest since August 28.