WELLINGTON: The Australian and New Zealand dollars edged higher on the greenback on Tuesday after stronger-than-expected Chinese data eased fears of a hard landing, while they both tested fresh record highs on the euro.
Aussie up 0.5 pct on the day at $1.0357, having risen to session high of $1.0368, after China Q4 GDP gained 8.9 pct, beating 8.7 pct forecast.. Heading into strong resistance at $1.0387, ahead of $1.0408, a 200-day moving average.
NZ dollar also lifted to $0.7964, up 0.4 pct, with resistance at $0.7980. Support at $0.7872, the 100-day moving average.
Aussie and kiwi are very sensitive to news out of China, a key export market.
Other data out of China, including industrial output and retail sales, showed little sign of a hard landing despite a notable slowdown in fixed-asset investment.
Antipodean currencies have been holding up remarkably well given S&P's mass downgrade of euro zone countries, and make further inroads against a broadly weaker euro.
Euro skids to A$1.2263, just above a fresh lifetime low of A$1.2250 and the fifth straight session of new troughs.
Downtrend remains in place with euro support at the 20-day Bollinger lower boundary of A$1.2140. Resistance at A$1.2382, the 10-day MA.
Against the kiwi, euro struggles at NZ$1.5943, after touching a fresh low of NZ$1.5869 on Monday.
Euro wobbly after Standard & Poor's cut the European Financial Stability Facility to AA+ on Monday. Growing fears of a Greek default also a big drag on sentiment.
New Zealand business confidence takes a dip in closely followed survey, with domestic activity off the boil apart from earthquake related recovery in Canterbury region.
With inflation pressures benign and an uncertain global outlook, it reinforces market expectations that interest rates are on hold for months to come. See
NZ electronic card retail sales in December month fall for second month in a row, pointing to consumers being wary in the Christmas-New Year period. See
Australian bond futures dip, trimming Monday's large gains on profit-taking. Three-year contract down 0.1 points to 96.800 and the 10-year contract off 0.095 points at 96.180.
Demand for Australia's triple-A rated bonds has been very strong as it is now only one of 14 countries with the top rating from S&P.
NZ government bonds slip, with yields between 5 and 7 basis points higher along the curve.
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