On Tuesday the Australian and New Zealand dollars dropped against their U.S. counterpart, both re-approaching six-year lows as global growth concerns
continued to weigh on sentiment and as expectations for a U.S. rate hike
in the coming months supported the greenback.
AUD/USD hit 0.6937 during late Asian trade, the pair's lowest since September 24; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.6948, declining 0.59%.
NZD/USD hit 0.6290 during late Asian trade, the pair's lowest since September 24; the pair settled at 0.6304, sliding 0.42%.
Both commodity-exposed currencies were affected after city firm Investec released a downbeat note on Glencore, Anglo-Swiss mining giant, highlighting that the weakness is likely to be reflected in the entire sector.
Yesterday, Glencore's shares dropped 29%.
Demand for the greenback remained supported after New York Federal Reserve Bank President William Dudley said on Monday that the central bank remains on track for a rate hike this year and could move as soon as the upcoming meeting in October. The comments came after Fed Chair Janet Yellen said last Thursday that the Fed was likely to raise interest rates in 2015.
Meanwhile, market sentiment was hurt after International Monetary Fund head Christine Lagarde said in an interview on Monday that the IMF is likely to revise downwards its estimates for global economic growth due to slower expansion in emerging economies.
"This phenomenon should lead us to revise our growth forecast. World GDP (growth) at 3.3% this year is not realistic anymore. A forecast of 3.8% (growth) for next year is not either. We will remain above 3%, though," Christine Lagarde was quoted as saying.
The U.S. dollar was also boosted by data on Monday showing that U.S. personal spending rose 0.4% in August, beating expectations for an increase of 0.3%.
