The Australian currency was slightly higher at Thursday noon as further speculation of quantitative easing in the US and currency devaluations by other countries kept it in a tight range.

At midday AEST, the local unit was changing hands at 93.82 US cents, an increase from Wednesday's finish of 93.73 cents. It had jumped as far as $US0.9457 offshore Tuesday, taking it back to heights held in July 2008 before the global financial crisis.

Since 7am today, the domestic dollar has traded between 93.33 US cents and 93.47 cents.

The Aussie went sideways in early morning trade due to "fairly serious crosswinds," according to ICAP senior economist Adam Carr.

"On one hand, there's talk about the Fed wanting to pump another trillion dollars into the economy by printing it, which is obviously very positive for the Aussie dollar."

"But the flipside is there are a whole bunch of other central banks getting worried about the strength of their own currencies.

"If they want to devalue their own currencies they are going to have to buy US dollars, buy Treasuries and it has the opposite effect (on the Australian currency)".

The Bank of Japan stepped in on Wednesday to sell the yen in an effort to restrain its export-sapping strength.

The yen fell 3 per cent or more against major currencies including the greenback, euro and British pound.

Traders continue to talk about the prospect of a restart in the US Federal Reserve's quantitative easing policy.

Mr Carr said the result would be positive for the Aussie, if speculations of quantitative easing were true.

He forecasts the Australian dollar will trade in a narrow range during the afternoon.

Although Mr Carr said the local unit could push marginally higher on any bullish comments by Reserve Bank of Australia assistant governor Philip Lowe during his speech at 1345 (AEST).