The Australian and New Zealand dollars were swept higher by a wave of short covering on Thursday, with the Aussie pulling up from a two-week trough thanks in part to buoyant equity markets in Asia. The Aussie dollar stood at $1.0420, putting more distance from Wednesday's low of $1.0328.
The bounce has put the Aussie on track to reclaim $1.0500, and even positioned it for another crack at the September 14 peak of $1.0625. It also rose against the yen to 80.95, recovering from a three-week low 80.21 set a day ago. Against its New Zealand peer, the Aussie also climbed to NZ$1.2596 from a five-week low of NZ$1.2544. The New Zealand dollar gained around 0.3 percent on the day to $0.8267. Near term support for the kiwi, which has gained more than 3 percent so far this month, is seen at $0.8222 with solid resistance at $0.8284, the high on September 25.