Investing.com - The Australian dollar was little changed against its U.S. counterpart on Tuesday, while the New Zealand dollar slipped lower after the release of downbeat local data and as sentiment on the greenback mildly recovered from recent losses.
AUD/USD was steady at 0.7964, just off the previous session's four-month high of 0.7978.
The greenback remained under broad selling pressure as the euro continued to strengthen after Thursday’s minutes of the European Central Bank’s December meeting said officials could consider a gradual shift in policy guidance from early 2018.
Market participants were looking ahead to manufacturing data from the New York area due later Tuesday, as well as more economic reports expected at the end of the week.
NZD/USD slipped 0.22% to trade at 0.7284, after hitting a four-month peak of 0.7315 hit on Monday.
Earlier Tuesday, data showed that New Zealand's business confidence index fell to -12 in the fourth quarter from a reading og 5 in the three months to September.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.17% at 90.28 by 02:10 a.m. ET (06:10 GMT), off Monday's three-year low of 90.05.