Australian and New Zealand dollars struggle

The Australian and New Zealand dollars struggled to make much headway against the greenback on Wednesday as markets continued to fret about slower Chinese growth and how much of a drag that would be on the local economies. The Aussie stood at $1.0488, versus $1.0475 late in New York, still smarting after falling more than 1 percent on Tuesday.
The sell-down came after global miner BHP Billiton said it saw signs that growth in iron ore demand from China was slowing, though growth was still in the single-digits. The New Zealand dollar drifted up to $0.8186 from $0.8172 late in New York, having also trimmed earlier gains that saw it climb as high as $0.8214. It skidded about 1.2 percent on Tuesday and the focus was on whether it would close above $0.8197, the 55-day moving average. Traders said there was broad demand for the kiwi around $0.8150/60.