TOKYO: The Australian dollar languished near a six-week trough on Thursday, undermined by a slide in oil and other commodity prices, while the kiwi tried to lift off a one-month low ahead of the central bank’s rate-setting meeting next week.
The Aussie was also still smarting from Reserve Bank of Australia’s push back against bets for 2022 interest rate hikes earlier in the week, with wage inflation data on Wednesday doing nothing to boost the case for tighter policy. Australia’s dollar was about flat at $0.7264 from the previous session, when it marked a two-day 1.12% tumble and touched a low of $0.7259 for the first time since Oct. 6.
Crude benchmarks slumped to four-week lows after OPEC warned of impending oversupply, while Reuters reported that the United States was asking other major global oil consumers like China and Japan to consider a coordinated release of oil reserves.
“Once again, we find ourselves at the mercy of headlines around whether the US and now China will release crude reserves into the system,” Chris Weston, head of research at brokerage Pepperstone in Melbourne, wrote in a client note.
Comments
Comments are closed.