Aussie dollar departs from record level as US currency regains strength
Friday foreign exchange trading saw a weaker performance from the Australian dollar following its offshore surge of 99.18 earlier this week that was spurred by encouraging local job figures, which analyst said could finally budge the policy rate in an upward mode by November.
By midday, the market saw the Australian dollar exchanging at 98.02 cents as is gave up some gains from yesterday's level of 98.37 cents while its buying power against the yen stood at 80.76 with the euro at 70.41 cents and 61.72 pence.
The local currency has been hovering on ranges between 98 cents and 98.32 cents against the US dollar since Thursday as 4Cast research analyst Ray Attrill observed that Friday's retreat could be attributed to negligible adjustments in the downward path being taken by the US currency lately.
Mr Attrill noted that the US shares market were showing weaker signs in the afternoon trading, which he said pointed to the disappearance of positive effects by the Federal Reserves' apparent quantitative easing, noting that "it's having an impact in terms of the US dollar."
Analysts said that soft figures from the afternoon trading failed to attract further attention from currency traders as the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index shed 0.39 percent to 4637 points while the All Ordinaries Index bled by 0.34 percent to 4730 points.
Encouraging US employment data published overnight detracted the Australian dollar from its high of 99.18 US cents, its highest since the local dollar was floated back in December 1983 as the US Department of Labor said that jobless claims dipped by 2.4 percent to 445,000 in the week ending on October 2.
The data came out amidst the anticipated 9.7 percent spikes on unemployment rate for the US job results for September and on the back of Federal Reserves assertions that infusing more money into the US economy would not make a dent in sparking recovery and creating more jobs.
Mr Attrill maintained that such developments allowed the US dollar to flex some muscles and chipped away the record strength attained by the Australian currency.