The surging Australian currency held ground to nudge closer to a 2008 peak on Wednesday noon, as US dollar weakness persists and traders balance concerns about global risk factors.

In midday trade, the Aussie was at 96.72 US cents, just a touch under a two-year high of $0.9687 and within sight of $0.9851, a top hit in 2008 that was also the highest it has ever scaled since it was floated in 1983.

It was up 1 US cent from Tuesday's local finish of 95.72 cents.

The greenback fell against other currencies yesterday after a handful of reports highlighted fears about the waning American economy.

A survey on consumer confidence found that Americans were increasingly downbeat about the economy.

Another report on the outlook of CEOs at major US companies showed top business executives remain cautious and were increasingly possibly trim hiring plans.

Royal Bank of Scotland foreign exchange strategist Greg Gibbs said it was difficult to say the short-term movement of the Aussie.

''It's still clearly in a rising trend ... and continues to rise in a steep trajectory, so there's always a risk that it will pull back before it gets to those (July 2008) levels.''

''I don't have a strong sense of where the next cent is going to come from but before year end we'll be testing 98.50 US cents,'' he said.

Mr Gibbs forecasts the Australian dollar to continue to be supported on the release of Chinese PMI data on Wednesday afternoon.

China is the biggest buyer of Australia's commodity exports and surging Chinese demand has been one of the key reasons for Australia's strong economic performance. Hence, good Chinese data tends to bode well for the Aussie.