“Australia’s dollar declined toward an 11-month low after a private report showed business confidence slid amid bets that the Reserve Bank will cut interest rates further to curb the currency’s strength.
The so-called Aussie weakened against most of its 16 major peers after Barclays Plc cut its forecast for the currency, citing Australia’s falling yield advantage. New Zealand’s dollar held a five-day loss versus the U.S. greenback as the premium on the South Pacific nation’s 10-year note rate over Treasuries was near a four-year low.
“The Australian dollar has a little bit more room to decline,” said Takuya Kawabata, an analyst at Gaitame.com Research Institute Ltd. in Tokyo, a unit of Japan’s largest currency margin-trading company. “A recovery in the Aussie above $1 and a further advance would fan speculation the RBA will cut borrowing costs again.”
Australia’s dollar lost 0.4 percent to 99.86 U.S. cents as of 4:14 p.m. in Sydney after touching 99.61 on May 10, the weakest since June 14 and halting a record 10-month stretch of trading above parity. New Zealand’s currency was little changed at 83.03 U.S. cents.
The extra yield that investors receive to hold New Zealand’s benchmark 10-year note instead of similar-maturity Treasuries was at 1.44 percentage points after falling to 1.42 on May 3, the least since January 2009…..”
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