SYDNEY: The Australian and New Zealand dollars were consolidating gains on Thursday after a surprisingly soft reading on core US inflation revived the chance of earlier rate cuts there, while upbeat jobs data at home offered added support.

Both were off their peaks after running into profit-taking, but the Aussie was still up 1% for the week. It was last trading at $0.6650, having briefly reached as far as $0.6705 overnight.

That was well away from last week’s low of $0.6576, though a break of the May peak at $0.6714 is needed to extend the run.