SYDNEY: The Australian dollar was testing four-month highs on Friday as investors piled into bets that interest rates could rise as soon as April, hammering bonds and sending yields soaring to peaks not seen since 2019.

The Aussie stood at $0.7546, having breached resistance at $0.7546 overnight to touch a top of $0.7555. It was up 1.0% for the week so far, eyeing the next technical target of $0.7616.

The New Zealand dollar was up 0.5% for the week at $0.7183 , though it again failed to clear stiff resistance at $0.7219. The bias is higher as long as support at $0.7130 holds. Bond markets were battered anew when the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) skipped another chance to defend its 0.1% target for the April 2024 bond yield, even though yields had topped 0.5%.