The Australian dollar held near a 3-month high on the greenback on Wednesday, struggling to break above 77 US cents which is proving to be a major hurdle even as it scaled multi-month peaks on the yen and the euro. The Australian dollar stood at $0.7656, having reached $0.7696 overnight to match a 3-month high it made at the start of February.
The Aussie kept its winning streak elsewhere, rising to a two-year high on the euro as traders pressured the single currency on uncertainties about France's presidential election and Greek bailout talks. On the yen, the Aussie hit a more than one-year high, largely due to carry trades where investors borrow at low rates to invest in high-yielding currencies.
The New Zealand dollar fell for a third straight session to $0.7165, near a 3-1/2 week low of $0.7156 touched on Monday. The Kiwi was knocked off a three-month peak last week after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand signalled it could keep rates at record lows for two years, hosing down bets of a rate hike later in 2017.
If it remains down here, the kiwi will clock its second straight week of losses. New Zealand government bonds eased, sending yield about 5 basis points higher at the long-end of the curve. Australian government bond futures fell too, with the three-year bond contract down 5 ticks at 97.970. The 10-year contract slipped 5.5 ticks to 97.1750. The Aussie has traded in a sideways direction since the beginning of the month, and even though it has failed persistently at crucial chart resistance around $0.7700, demand remains fairly solid.
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