The Australian and New Zealand dollars nursed losses on the yen and euro on Thursday as a slide in global share markets sent skittish investors scampering to safe havens. That left the Aussie and kiwi strangely steady on the US dollar as investors favoured currencies from regions with sizable current account surpluses.
The Aussie actually edged up a fraction to $0.7073, though that followed a retreat from $0.7130 overnight. The kiwi likewise added 0.3 percent to $0.6467, having fallen back from $0.6496 on Wednesday. The US dollar was hampered in part by a pullback in Treasury yields, with the 10-year off at 3.15 percent from a seven-year top of 3.26 percent touched earlier in the week.
The Aussie had less luck on the euro which reached its highest since August 2015 at A$1.6358, having gained 0.8 percent overnight. The Aussie also lost 1.2 percent on the yen before steadying somewhat around 79.30 yen on Thursday.
New Zealand government bonds benefited from the rush to safe havens, pushing yields down 2 to 4 basis points. Australian government bond futures also rallied, with the three-year bond contract up 3 ticks at 97.890. The 10-year contract added 4 ticks to 97.2700.
"AUD/JPY was hit hard by the tumult in equity prices, as usual," said Joseph Capurso, a senior currency strategist at CBA. "It has further downside if US earnings season - which has only just begun - is a bad one for equity prices." The S&P 500 suffered its largest one-day fall since February and stocks across Asia were all under water.