The Australian dollar dropped against other most-traded currencies today, reaching the lowest level in more than a year against the US dollar. The Aussie fell following the surge of risk aversion, mixed domestic macroeconomic data, and the release of the central bank’s policy meeting.
The Reserve Bank of Australia released minutes of its June policy meeting today. Analysts were concerned that the central bank dropped the mention that the next move in interest rates should be up, not down, which was present in the several previous minutes. Yet some experts said that it does not mean much considering that just the previous week RBA Governor Philip Lowe stated that the next move in rates should indeed likely be a hike.
Australia’s house prices fell 0.7% in the March quarter of 2018 from the previous three months following the 1.0% increase in the December quarter of 2017. The reading was not that bad, though, compared to the predicted drop by 0.9%.
Meanwhile, the trade spat between the United States and China, Australia’s biggest trading partner, continued to hurt riskier currencies, including the Aussie.
AUD/USD dropped from 0.7422 to 0.7363 as of 12:55 GMT today, and its daily low of 0.7347 was the lowest since May 2017. EUR/AUD gained from 1.5651 to 1.5695, though retreated from the daily high of 1.5751. AUD/JPY declined from 82.05 to 80.92, touching the low of 80.63 intraday.
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AUD Touches Lowest Since May 2017 vs. USD
