The Australian dollar has fallen almost half a US cent against its US counterpart as equity markets continue to bounce back from a sell-off bloodbath that wiped $US4 trillion off the value of shares.
At 0635 AEDT on Thursday, the Australian dollar was worth 78.29 US cents, down from 78.77 US cents on Wednesday.
With easing volatility on Wall Street, the US dollar has stayed strong, rising against most major currencies amid the gains in equities.
Westpac’s Imre Speizer says the US dollar has had one of its better days of recent months.
“The USD outperformed all the majors, the US dollar index up 0.9 per cent on the day,” he said in a morning note.
“Commodity currencies were hit hard, (with the) AUD down from 0.7880 to 0.7817 – a one-month low.”
The key event risks for the currency on Thursday were Reserve Bank of Australia’s governor Philip Lowe’s speech at the A50 Australian Economic Forum dinner and National Australia Bank’s fourth-quarter business survey.
He said he could not see the local currency gaining much ground on Thursday.
“(It) retains downward momentum, with minor support at 0.7810 vulnerable given commodity weakness and USD strength overnight”.
The Aussie dollar is also lower against the yen but higher against the euro.
AAP
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