Australia’s dollar traded near its highest level in a month against the U.S. currency as stocks and commodity prices rose amid signs the global economy is picking up, increasing demand for higher-yielding assets. The so-called Aussie gained for a third day against the yen before data which economists said will show U.S. companies added jobs for a 12th consecutive month and European producer prices increased in December. New Zealand’s dollar, known as the kiwi, was close to the highest level in 10 weeks as whole milk powder prices rose to an eight-month high and before data forecast to show employment increased in the fourth quarter from a year earlier. “There’s a risk-on mood spreading across the markets on the back of the improving global economy,” said Takuya Kawabata, a researcher in Tokyo at Gaitame.com Research Institute Ltd., a unit of Japan’s largest foreign-exchange margin company. “The Aussie and kiwi are supported by the higher stock and commodity prices.” Australia’s dollar traded at $1.0117 as of 4:23 p.m. in Sydney from $1.0111 in New York yesterday, when it touched $1.0149, the highest level since Jan. 4. The currency bought 82.47 yen from 82.26 yen. New Zealand’s dollar fetched 78.08 U.S. cents from 78.14 cents yesterday, when it reached 78.26, the strongest since Nov. 22. It was at 63.65 yen from 63.57 yen. U.S., European Data Companies in the U.S. added 140,000 jobs in January after a 297,000 rise in December, according to the median estimate of economists in a Bloomberg News survey before ADP Employer Services reports the data today. Europe’s producer prices rose 5.2 percent in December from a year earlier, economists surveyed by Bloomberg News said before the European Union’s statistics office data today. That’s the fastest pace since October 2008. Prices advanced 0.7 percent from the previous month, according the survey’s median estimate. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index of regional shares climbed 1.4 percent today while the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of stocks advanced 1.7 percent yesterday and the Thomson Reuters/Jefferies CRB Commodity Price Index rose 0.2 percent. The New Zealand dollar gained for a second day versus the yen before data that may show employment increased by 2 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. The statistics New Zealand figures are due tomorrow. Commodity Prices Demand for the kiwi was also bolstered as Auckland-based Fonterra Cooperative Group Ltd., the world’s largest dairy exporter, said whole milk powder prices gained 7.6 percent from two weeks earlier, reaching the highest since June 1, according to auction results published today. A broader index of 17 export commodities rose for a fifth straight month in January to a record, ANZ National Bank Ltd. said yesterday. “Rising commodity prices certainly portend a strong fundamental support for the New Zealand dollar,” said Mike Jones, currency strategist at Bank of New Zealand. “That’s something we expect to support a generally rising trend to the middle of this year.” Benchmark interest rates are 4.75 percent in Australia and 3 percent in New Zealand, compared to as low as zero in the U.S. and Japan, attracting investors to the South Pacific nations’ higher-yielding assets. The risk in such trades is that currency market moves will erase profits. To contact the reporter on this story: Monami Yui in Tokyo at myui1@bloomberg.net. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Rocky Swift at rswift5@bloomberg.net.

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