Forex – AUD/USD Edges Higher, Kiwi Drops in Late Trade

Investing.com – The Australian dollar edged higher against its U.S. counterpart on Tuesday, while the New Zealand dollar dropped after the release of downbeat Chinese economic reports and as investors eyed upcoming speeches by a number of central bank officials.

AUD/USD edged up 0.10% to 0.7631, just off Monday’s five-month low of 0.7610.

Earlier Tuesday, the National Bank of Australia said its business confidence index ticked up to 8 in October from a reading of 7 the previous month.

But gains were capped by official data showing that China’s industrial production increased by an annualized rate of 6.2% last month, disappointing expectations for a 6.3% gain.

Another report showed that China’s retail sales rose 10.0% in October, year-over-year, compared to expectations for a 10.4% climb.

China is Australia’s biggest export partner and New Zealand’s second biggest export partner.

NZD/USD retreated 0.72% to trade at 0.6852, the lowest since November 1.

Meanwhile, market participants were looking ahead to speeches by European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda and Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen.

Investors also continued to monitor developments in the U.S., where Senate Republicans unveiled a tax plan on Thursday that differed from the one crafted by House Republicans, highlighting the challenges to reconciling the differences between the two plans with just a short time before the year-end deadline they have set to pass it.

Hopes of tax reform have helped boost the dollar since mid-September. Some traders believe tax reforms could bolster growth, adding pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates, known as the “Trumpflation” trade.

The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was steady at 94.40 by 02:15 a.m. ET (06:15 GMT).