Australian, Canadian dollars surge

[NEW YORK] Australia's and Canada's dollars jumped against the US greenback Tuesday, while the euro held flat and the yen edged higher.

The decision by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) to hold interest rates steady after last week's strong growth report sent the Australian currency up 1.2 per cent to 74.56 cents.

Last week, Canberra reported the economy grew 3.1 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter, outstripping most of the world's advanced economies.

Meanwhile, a surging oil price, which topped US$50 for the first time since July, boosted Canada's dollar by 0.7 per cent, to C$1.2739 per one US dollar.

"Aside from RBA and higher oil prices, the commodity currencies also benefited from the rally in stocks, improvement in risk appetite and continued weakness of the US dollar," said Kathy Lien of BKK Asset management.

But she said now the markets are focused on Chinese trade data to be released early on Wednesday.

"For the rallies to last, tonight's Chinese data needs to be good," she said.

AFP