The Australian and New Zealand dollars pushed higher on Tuesday as more countries pressed ahead with restarting their economies, while bonds benefited from signs the Australian government will not have to borrow as much to fund its stimulus plans.
The Aussie added 0.4% to $0.6572 <AUD=D3>, having bounced from solid support at $0.6495 on Monday. It still faces stiff resistance at the recent 10-week high of $0.6616 and then the 200-day moving average at $0.6657.
The kiwi dollar climbed almost 0.5% to $0.6131 <NZD=D3> and looked set for another test of chart resistance around $0.6157, a level that has capped all rallies since early March.
Domestic data held some hopeful signs for consumption in Australia with one survey measure of consumer sentiment up for the eighth straight week and banks reporting rising spending on their debit and credit cards.
"Very large losses in travel-related and dining/takeaway spending across Australia have been offset by strong growth in services and grocery spending," said analysts at ANZ.
"Non-essential retail growth is converging with elevated grocery spending, as fashion sales almost fully recover and home-related spending remains strong."
In the bond market, sentiment remained supported by the Australian government's announcement late last week that the cost of its job retention programme was likely to be A$60 billion ($39.43 billion) less than first budgeted.
"We estimate that almost all of the revision will be "saved" and hence see bond issuance around A$60 billion lower than previously expected," wrote analysts at Westpac.
"That is a considerable amount, more than 10% of current bonds outstanding and should see a significant re-calibration of borrowing expectations going forward."
Speculation the government might now be able to restrain its issuance of longer-term debt has helped yields on 10-year bonds <AU10YT=RR> ease to 0.879%, from a peak of 1.02% last week.
(Editing by Himani Sarkar)
