Investing.com - The Australian dollar was steady against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday, while the New Zealand dollar slipped lower as speculation over the next head of the Federal Reserve continued to lend support to the greenback.
AUD/USD was almost unchanged at 0.7841.
The greenback remained supported following reports on Monday that U.S. President Donald Trump was favoring Stanford economist John Taylor to replace Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen next year. Taylor is seen as more hawkish than current Yellen.
Trump is expected to meet with Yellen later in the week as part of his search for a new candidate for her position.
Market participants are also keeping an eye on current Fed Governor Jerome Powell and former Fed official Kevin Warsh as potential candidates to succeed Yellen when her term ends in February.
The dollar also benefited from data on Tuesday showing that U.S. industrial and manufacturing production rose in line with expectations last month.
A separate report showed that U.S. import and export prices jumped higher than expected in September.
NZD/USD slipped 0.29% to trade at 0.7150.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was setady at 93.39 by 02:10 a.m. ET (06:10 GMT), just off a one-and-a-half week high of 93.59 hit on Tuesday.