The Australian dollar hovered near one-week lows as markets were nervous before crucial trade talks between the leaders of the United States and China, while New Zealand's currency remained frail after a recent battering on poor economic data.
The Aussie AUD=D4 dithered around $0.7225, not far from last week's low of $0.7202. The trade-sensitive currency has so far enjoyed solid gains in November, rising about 2 percent as investors had hoped for some resolution in the bitter Sino-U.S. tariff battle.
U.S. President Donald Trump, however, put a damper on such optimism in an interview with the Wall Street Journal late on Monday.
He told the newspaper he expects to move ahead with raising tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports to 25 percent from 10 percent currently. He said it was "highly unlikely" he would accept China's request to hold off on the increase, planned for Jan. 1.
Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping are set to meet later this week at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires.
Australia's economy is heavily dependent on exports with its fortunes closely tied to China. So rising global protectionism is bad for the country as well as its currency.
Apart from the Trump-Xi meeting, market focus will also be on a speech by Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Richard Clarida later on Tuesday, ahead of an appearance by Chair Jerome Powell the day after.
Traders will assess whether "the less-hawkish tone continues to permeate Fed public appearances," ANZ said in a note to clients.
"A soft tone may help AUD, but we still prefer to sell rallies."
In New Zealand, the local dollar NZD=D4 was last at $0.6767 after earlier hitting a two-week trough of 0.6754.
The currency got a beating on Monday on surprisingly soft economic data that showed no growth in real retail sales in the third quarter when analysts had looked for a robust 1 percent jump.
Investors will keep an eye on the central bank's half-yearly financial stability review due Wednesday, at which policymakers will likely address whether they are ready to further relax mortgage lending restrictions.
New Zealand government bonds
0#NZTSY= were little changed. Australian government bond futures were mostly flat, with the three-year bond contract YTTc1 off half a tick at 97.885 and the 10-year contract YTCc1 steady at 97.3600.
