Investing.com – The Australian and New Zealand dollars edged higher against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday, as sentiment on the greenback was hit by a fresh rally by the euro and as the end of the U.S. government shutdown failed to give sufficient momentum to the local currency.
The euro has been strongly supported this year boosted by growing optimism the European Central Bank will signal a quicker exit than expected from its stimulus program.
The dollar only briefly rebounded after Congress approved a measure on Monday to fund the government for around three weeks and President Donald Trump signed the bill, ending the three-day government shutdown.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was down 0.10% at a fresh three-year low of 89.79 by 02:00 a.m. ET (06:00 GMT).
AUD/USD added 0.15% to 0.8013, not far from last week’s four-month peak of 0.8041.
NZD/USD edged up 0.10% to trade at 0.7363, the highest since September.