Dollar falls back below 77 US cents
THE Australian dollar is lower, dropping back below the 77 US cent mark, despite the US dollar weakening against a basket of currencies.
At 0635 AEDT on Friday, the Australian dollar was worth 76.96 US cents, down from 77.17 US cents on Thursday.
The US dollar weakened against a basket of major currencies overnight, posting its steepest one-day drop in more than two weeks, due to lower US bond yields and uncertainty over the timing of the Federal Reserve’s next interest rate rise.
Traders have scaled back bets on a looming US rate rise as they concluded Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen did not deliver enough conviction at her economic testimony before Congress on whether the central bank’s next rate increase will come at its March 14-15 meeting.
Westpac’s Imre Speizer said the US dollar index shed around 0.6 per cent with no obvious news to prompt the decline, while the Aussie dollar had ranged between 76.85 and 77.20 US cents.
CURRENCY SNAPSHOT AT 0635 AEDT ON FRIDAY
One Australian dollar buys:
* 76.96 US cents, from 77.17 on Thursday
* 87.13 Japanese yen, from 87.85 yen
* 72.13 euro cents, from 72.67 euro cents
(*Currency closes taken at 1700 AEDT previous local session)
Originally published as Dollar falls back below 77 US cents
