* Australian, New Zealand dollars hit 10-month highs
* Yen weakens as broad risk sentiment improves
* Euro hits nearly one-week high vs dollar
(Updates prices, adds comments)
By Sam Forgione
NEW YORK, April 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar hit 10-month
lows against some commodity currencies on Tuesday on a growing
appetite for risky assets and lost further ground to the euro
after weak U.S. economic data reinforced views that Federal
Reserve monetary policy would remain dovish.
The Australian dollar AUD=D4 hit $0.7827, its highest
level against the dollar since last June, while the New Zealand
dollar NZD=D4 touched $0.7055, also its highest since last
June, on the back of oil price gains. The Canadian dollar hit
its highest level since last July.
Analysts said a strike by oil workers in Kuwait, which
continued for a third day and nearly halved production from the
OPEC member, boosted crude prices and commodity currencies.
Concerns over China's economic growth have also diminished,
while the likelihood of a rapid string of Fed interest rate
hikes this year has receded, they said.
The dollar gained against the safe-haven yen for a second
straight day, however, as investors moved into riskier
currencies. The dollar was last up 0.28 percent against the yen
at 109.11 yen JPY= .
"People are getting a little bit more comfortable with
prospects for growth," said Thierry Albert Wizman, global
interest rates and currencies strategist at Macquarie Group
Limited in New York.
Analysts noted that recent strength in Chinese economic
data, particularly in manufacturing readings, have eased worries
about the world's second-largest economy.
U.S. housing starts data supported expectations that the
pace of Fed rate hikes would be slow, in turn hurting the dollar
against the euro, analysts said.
Groundbreaking decreased 8.8 percent to a seasonally
adjusted annual pace of 1.09 million units in March, the lowest
level since October, the Commerce Department reported.
"It supports a more gradual path for Federal Reserve
tightening," said Eric Viloria, currency strategist at Wells
Fargo Securities in New York in reference to the U.S. housing
data.
Fed funds futures contracts on Tuesday suggested traders saw
only an 18 percent probability of another Fed rate hike in June,
according to CME Group's (NASDAQ:CME) FedWatch program.
Expectations that the European Central Bank would not
announce further rate cuts in a meeting on Thursday also boosted
the euro against the dollar, Viloria of Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) Securities
said.
The euro was last up 0.57 percent against the dollar at
$1.1375 after hitting a six-day high of $1.1385 EUR= .
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a
basket of six major currencies, was last down 0.56 percent at
93.962 .DXY .