SYDNEY/WELLINGTON: The Australian and New Zealand dollars held near recent highs versus their US counterpart and the euro on Monday as upbeat local data and talk about stimulus measures in Europe encouraged investors to buy riskier assets.
The Aussie hovered around $0.9285, near a triple top around $0.9308-10, the highest level since November. A break above that level would target key resistance at $0.9340, the 61.8 percent retracement of the October-January fall.
Underpinning the Aussie was a private survey showing Australian job advertisements rose for a third straight month in March, a further sign that demand for labour is picking up.
Official employment figures for March are due on Thursday and median forecasts are for a modest rise of 5,000 following a surprisingly large 47,300 increase in February.
The jobless rate is seen staying at 6.0 percent.
The Aussie kept hefty gains versus the euro, which fell broadly on speculation of further easing by the European Central Bank.
"The market seems convinced the ECB is serious and poised to do something," said Annette Beacher, head of Asia-Pacific Research at TD Securities in Singapore.
"This fall in the euro will be welcome (to the ECB)," she added.
The euro stood at A$1.4747, having skidded to a four-month low of A$1.4689 on Friday. The euro has dropped 11 cents since a peak in January. It was at NZ$1.5914, having touched a 10-month trough of NZ$1.5755 in late March.
Against its US counterpart, the New Zealand dollar edged up to a session high of $0.8616, pulling further away from a two-week low of $0.8515 hit last week.
It remained in sight of a 2-1/2-year high of $0.8702 hit at the start of the month.
NZD OUTLOOK
The kiwi held gains after rallying on Friday when US payrolls figures were not so strong as to bring forward the time when the Federal Reserve might start raising interest rates.
"The longer it takes for US data to recover, and the longer US bond yields remain depressed, the more incentive there is for international investors to park cash here in New Zealand," ANZ analysts said in a note.
Many in the market expect the kiwi to stay bolstered on expectations that the Reserve Bank of New Zealand will raise interest rates from 2.75 percent this month and beyond, while rates in other developed countries remain at historic lows.
Still, some traders said they would sell the kiwi in the $0.8625-$0.8650 region this week, concerned that the bets for more gains in the kiwi were starting to look overdone.
The latest CFTC data shows that IMM speculators continued to add to net long positions in the currency last week, raising them to their highest level since May 2013. An ongoing increase in long positions raises the risk of a sudden depreciation if investors exit those positions en masse.
Technical resistance lay at $0.8618, the kiwi's 200-hourly moving average, while strong support was seen at $0.8544-$0.8549, which contained the 23.6 percent retracement of the kiwi's February-April rally, and a high hit in October.
A rally in US Treasury prices boosted New Zealand government bonds, pushing yields 5 basis points lower at the long end of the curve.
Australian government bond futures followed, with the three-year bond contract up 5 ticks at 96.950. The 10-year contract jumped to 95.905, pulling away from a two-month low.
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