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Australia, NZ dollars jump as US$ dives, bonds get rate fever
The Australian and New Zealand dollars jumped on Thursday while bond yields tumbled as markets priced in ever-more aggressive rate cuts in the United States, and at home. A surprisingly strong Australian jobs report gave the Aussie an extra fillip, taking it to the highest in almost five months at $0.6708 AUD=D3. It had already risen 1.5% overnight after the U.S. Federal Reserve gave a dovish outlook on policy. "The scale of the Fed surprise to rates markets suggests reverberations for the USD will continue in coming days," said Westpac FX analyst Sean Callow. "This should be enough to see AUD finally break ... (full story)