Investing.com – The Australian and New Zealand dollars moved higher on Monday, as Friday’s downbeat U.S. economic reports continued to weigh on the greenback and as markets begn to focus on the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting scheduled later in the week.
AUD/USD gained 0.30% to 0.8028.
The greenback came under pressure after data on Friday showed that U.S. industrial and manufacturing production unexpectedly fell in August.
In addition, the U.S. Commerce Department said retail sales unexpectedly fell by 0.2% in August.
Later this week, the Fed was expected to leave interest rates unchanged but it could give indications on when it plans to begin unwinding its balance sheet.
NZD/USD was up 0.36% at 0.7316.
Markets seemed to have recovered from news late Thursday that North Korea fired a missile over Japan into the Pacific Ocean. It was the peninsula’s second missile launch over Japanese territory in just over two weeks.
Pyongyang was expected to be discussed as U.S. President was preparing to address the United Nations for the first time this week.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was steady at 91.67 by 02:05 a.m. ET (06:05 GMT).