SYDNEY, April 15 Reuters The Australian and New Zealand dollars touched threeweek tops on Thursday as their U.S. counterpart extended its broad retreat and upbeat data suggested the Australian economy had grown strongly last quarter.

The Aussie stood at 0.7718, after jumping 1 overnight when a break of major resistance at 0.7677 triggered a wave of stoploss buying. The next target is a high from March at 0.7849.

The kiwi dollar climbed to 0.7145, having gained 1.2 overnight and finally cleared resistance at 0.7070. Its next targets are 0.7187 and 0.7268.

Both currencies also made sizable gains on the yen and euro.

The Aussie got an added fillip from data showing 70,700 jobs were added in March, twice the market forecast, while unemployment dropped to a oneyear low at 5.6.

The March 2021 labour force survey was another incredibly solid report, said Gareth Aird, head of Australian economics at CBA. It supports our nonconsensus call that the unemployment rate will end the year at 5.0.

Its is probably time to stop using the word recovery when referring to the state of the Australian economy. The domestic economy is now simply in expansion mode.

So far, the Reserve Bank of Australia RBA has stuck to its super loose monetary policy, emphasising that unemployment will likely have to fall to 4 or lower to get wages and inflation up to desired levels.

That commitment has made bonds resilient to the recent run of upbeat economic news and kept 10year yields steady at 1.73…