Australian and New Zealand dollars recover

The Australian and New Zealand dollars shrugged off soft Asian stocks on Wednesday to recoup some overnight losses, helped by gains on the yen as investors stayed on guard for intervention from Tokyo. Aussie traded at $0.8857, against Tuesday's local level of $0.8890 but above a low of $0.8801 hit offshore. It was up on the yen at 74.74 , a good way above its offshore low of 73.57.
The yen had hit a 15-year peak on the dollar and a nine-year high on the euro on Tuesday. The NZ dollar traded around $0.7035, above its local open level. It had ranged between $0.7006 and $0.7079 overnight. It was up on the yen at 59.33, up from an offshore low of 58.62. Both currencies were knocked around overnight, falling ahead of US housing data, then rebounding when the figures were even worse than expected.