Australia, NZ dlrs back in familiar range after choppy response to Fed

SYDNEY: The Australian and New Zealand dollars were back to their familiar ranges on Thursday after a choppy response to pushback from the Federal Reserve on a March cut, but traders stuck to bets for sizeable cuts in US rates later in the year.

The Aussie was trading at $0.6565, back in the range of $0.6550 to $0.6620 that it has been for the past two weeks. It eased 0.5% overnight to as low as $0.6551, pressured by a buoyant dollar as risk assets were sold off on dimmed prospects of a March cut in the United States.

The kiwi dollar was 0.1% higher at $0.6125, having also dipped 0.3% overnight. It hit a two-week high of $0.6173 a day earlier, helped by a still hawkish Reserve Bank of New Zealand. It is now back within the range of $0.6088 and $0.6150.

The Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, in a sweeping endorsement of the US economy’s strength, said on Wednesday that interest rates had peaked and would move lower in coming months, although he did say March is not the base case for a cut.