Investing.com – The Australian and New Zealand dollars were little changed against their U.S. counterpart on Wednesday, after the release of upbeat Australian data and as market sentiment remained globally supported.
AUD/USD held steady at 0.8026.
Earlier Wednesday, the Westpac Banking Corporation said consumer sentiment increased by 2.5% in September after a 1.2% decline the previous month.
Meanwhile, sentiment continued to improve as Hurricane Irma appeared to have caused less damage than feared and in the absence of any new provocations from North Korea.
Irma, which had hammered the Caribbean late last week andwas one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes, weakened to a tropical depression, easing concerns over the severity of its financial impact.
Separately, market participants seemed to shrug off North Korea’s rejection of sanctions imposed by the U.N. Security Council.
The Security Council voted unanimously on Monday to step up sanctions on the peninsula, in response to its sixth nuclear test.
NZD/USD was almost unchanged at 0.7290.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was down 0.11% at 91.79 by 02:10 a.m. ET (06:10 GMT).