Aussie near 3-week highs, kiwi steady after OPEC deal
The Australian slid lower against its U.S. counterpart on Thursday, after hitting a three-week high earlier in the session, while the New Zealand dollar held steady following news an production cap deal was struck by major oil producers.
AUD/USD fell 0.26% to 0.7672, just off the three-week peak of 0.7711 hit overnight.
The commodity currency strengthened earlier after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said it agreed to reduce output to a range of 32.5-33.0 million barrels per day, a reduction of 0.7-2.2% from OPEC estimates of its current output at 33.24 million bpd.
It was the first such deal since 2008 and oil prices were also hovering near three-week highs following the news.
NZD/USD was little changed at 0.7279.
In the U.S., Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen told Congress on Wednesday that the central bank does not have a “fixed timetable” for modifying its monetary policy.
However, she added that continued job creation at its current pace would cause the economy to overheat and, in that case, the Fed could be forced to raise rates faster than expected.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.17% at 95.47.
Source: Investing
