2013.03.2605:41:35UTC+00Aussie Dollar almost hits two month high

The Australian dollar exchanged 0.2 percent from its strongest level in two months before central bank Governor Glenn Stevens is scheduled to speak today.

The Aussie dollar jumped versus 15 of 16 major peers this month as traders pared bets on interest-rate cuts by the Reserve Bank of Australia, aiding demand for the nation’s higher-yielding assets. New Zealand’s kiwi dollar was 0.3 percent from a one-month high as the nation announced a surprising exchange surplus for February.

“The Australian interest-rate outlook is still a little clouded despite the strong employment numbers we saw recently,” said Tim Waterer, a senior foreign-exchange dealer at CMC Markets in Sydney. “While there’s been a swing around to less likelihood of further interest-rate cuts going forward, the market will be listening for rhetoric from Stevens on the prospects for rates ahead.”

The Australian dollar drops 0.1 percent to $1.0455 as of 1:29 p.m. in Sydney after yesterday advancing as high as $1.0480, the highest since Jan. 24. It climbed 0.1 percent to 98.64 yen. New Zealand’s currency was move a notch at 83.49 U.S. cents and yesterday hits 83.71, the most since Feb. 25. The kiwi advanced 0.2 percent to 78.76 yen.

Traders are trying to do a forecast that the RBA will drop its 3 percent standard rate by 14 basis points over the next 12 months, down from calculations for 46 basis points of cuts on March 1, based from Credit Suisse Group AG index.

New Zealand’s statistics bureau reported a trade surplus of NZ$414 million in February, in comparison with the median calculation for a NZ$12 million deficit. The 12-month trade difference was NZ$1.08 billion.

Australia’s 10-year bond yield dropped five basis points, or 0.05 percentage point, to 3.58 percent. New Zealand’s two-year swap rate, a steady payment created to get floating rates which is sensitive to interest-rate assumptions increase to 2.92 percent from 2.90 percent yesterday.