The Australian dollar held near a 3-1/2 month peak on Tuesday as traders waited on fresh catalysts from a slew of data and central bank events, while the New Zealand dollar was subdued ahead of a global dairy auction. The Australian dollar was 0.2 percent lower at $0.7670. It went as far as $0.7732 last week, a level last seen in November, on a string of bright economic data and a brisk rally in the price of iron ore - the country's top export earner.
Elsewhere, the Aussie hit a near four-month high on its New Zealand counterpart, while staying close to a two-year high on the euro and a one-year peak on the yen . The New Zealand dollar hit a one-week low of $0.7155 on Tuesday. It last stood at $0.7162 from a high of $0.7199 touched in the previous session. New Zealand government bonds were flat with yields largely unchanged.
Australian government bond futures eased, with both the three-year bond contract and the 10-year contract down 2 ticks at 97.94 and 97.16 respectively. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) also sounded optimistic about the prospects of the country's economic growth when it held rates at record low this month, minutes of its February meeting showed.
But analysts still expect the Aussie to be trapped in a $0.7580/$0.7720 range in the near term. "It feels like all the good news might be baked into the cake," said Greg McKenna, chief market strategist at AxiTrader. "With the bulls' exhaustion and not much data to surprise the market, the Australian dollar rally is at a standstill." Notably, the Aussie has outperformed the greenback since the beginning of 2017, rallying 6.6 percent compared with a near 1 percent fall in the US dollar index in the period.
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