The Australian and New Zealand dollars lost a bit of ground on Monday, but held on to most of last week's hefty gains on optimism that Europe will soon come up with a concrete plan to tackle its debt crisis. The Aussie last traded at $1.0301, down from $1.0341 late in New York on Friday, where it scaled a one-month peak of $1.0347.
Last week's near 6 percent rally, which was the Aussie's biggest weekly move in over two years, has lifted it towards key resistance at $1.0380. The New Zealand dollar was also softer at $0.8017, down from New York's $0.8049, taking a breather after having rallied 7.5 percent from a six-month trough of $0.7470 on October 4.
The Antipodeans were a touch softer against the yen, with the Aussie sitting around 79.47 yen, not far from a one-month high of 79.91, while the kiwi was at 61.81, near a three-week high at 62.21 set Friday. Against the kiwi, the Aussie was little changed at NZ$1.2829.