The Australian dollar has moved above 91 US cents as traders take profits on the greenback and prepare for key American employment data.

At 0700 AEDT on Wednesday, the local unit was trading at 91.38 US cents, up from 90.67 cents on Tuesday.

The currency remained above 91 US cents for the entire US trading session, even though there was no new American data overnight to drive direction.

HiFX senior dealer Dan Bell said the rise in the Australian dollar was more a reflection on foreign exchange strategists selling the greenback to take profits.

“It’s certainly been just a little bit of profit taking and a bit of technical consolidation,” he said from Auckland.

“More than anything, we’ve just seen broad US dollar weakness.”

Traders are preparing themselves for the release of US non-farm payrolls data for November early Saturday morning, Australian time.

Financial markets are expecting the figures to show the creation of 180,000 new jobs.

A figure above that level would convince traders the US Federal Reserve could start tapering its stimulus measures as early as this month.

“Anything stronger than that’s going to be positive for the US dollar, negative for the Australian dollar,” Mr Bell said.

AAP