Australian data puts pressure on Aussie, Kiwi heads north

On Tuesday, the Australian dollar headed south versus its American counterpart reacting to the publication of quite pessimistic Australian data. Another contributing factor was the major bank’s move, which made up its mind leave its interest rate intact. As for the New Zealand dollar, this commodity currency managed to inch up because the evergreen buck went down a bit.

The currency pair AUD/USD headed south 0.20% demonstrating an outcome of 0.7861. It has appeared to be the lowest reading of this pair since January 11.

On Tuesday, the Reserve Bank of Australia decided to leave its benchmark interest rate intact. Currently it accounts for 1.50%. The given move was generally anticipated by most market experts.

The decision emerged right after the Australian Bureau of Statistics informed that in December retail sales went down 0.5% versus hopes for a slump of just 0.2%.

According to a separate report, in December Australia's trade balance reached a A$1.36 billion deficit versus a surplus of about A$0.036 billion in November, whose figure was updated from a previously assessed deficit that accounted for A$0.63 billion.

Market experts had hoped that in December the trade balance would demonstrate a surplus of A$0.25 billion.

The currency pair NZD/USD managed to grow 0.39% being worth 0.7293, which is off a two-and-a-half week minimum of 0.7261 reached overnight.

At the same time the New Zealand dollar derived benefits from a retreat in the US currency because the evergreen buck took a breather having soared to an almost two-week maximum due to the previous week's firm American jobs report.

The U.S. dollar index that normally gauges the US dollar’s value versus a trade-weighted basket of six main rivals, headed south 0.15% demonstrating a reading of 89.44, which is off the almost two-week maximum of 89.58 hit overnight.