The Australian dollar was trading at $US 96.72 cents early this morning.

The value is lower than Thursday's close of $US 96.82 cents. Overnight, the Aussie buck reached $US 97.32 cents.

The dollar was trading between $US 96.25 cents and $US 97.32 cents since 5 p.m. yesterday.

The Australia dollar can buy the British pound at $AU 1.6361, the Euro at $AU 1.407, and the Canadian dollar at $AU 99.97 cents. It could be exchanged with a unit of the Chinese Yuan for $AU 0.1540 cents, the Hong Kong dollar for $AU 0.1328 cents, and the Japanese Yen for 0.0123 cent.

The New Zealand Kiwi is worth $AU 0.7631 cents. Against the Singapore dollar, the local unit is equivalent to $AU 0.7841 cents.

The U.S. sharemarket closed strong during the last day of September trading due to the release of favorable employment data. The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits dropped more than expected for the third time in four weeks.

The Department of Commerce also posted a gross domestic product increase at an annual rate of 1.7 percent in the second quarter.

The local currency would most likely be influenced by Australian and even Chinese manufacturing data which are expected to be released today.