Aussie dollar creeps higher

THE Australian dollar has crept a little higher against its US counterpart amid falls in oil and iron ore prices and ahead of several key events.

THE Australian dollar has crept a little higher against its US counterpart amid falls in oil and iron ore prices and ahead of several key political and monetary events.

At 0635 AEST on Thursday, the Australian dollar was worth 75.53 US cents, up from 75.47 US cents on Wednesday.

The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against six major rivals, has hardly moved, up 0.06 per cent, at 96.698.

Westpac’s Imre Speizer said currencies had been contained and the US dollar index volatile in the offshore session “ahead of the trifecta of global risk events tonight,” he said in a morning note on Thursday.

Those events are the British general elections, the European Central Bank’s monetary policy decision and Congressional testimony by former FBI chief James Comey.

Also impacting markets were a four per cent fall in oil prices and a one per cent drop in the price of iron ore.

Mr Speizer said that on Thursday the Aussie dollar was likely to climb “higher towards the 0.7600 area (April highs) ahead of the trifecta of global risk events tonight”.

The local currency rose against the yen and the euro.

CURRENCY SNAPSHOT AT 0635 AEST ON THURSDAY

One Australian dollar buys:

* 75.53 US cents, from 75.43 on Wednesday

* 82.94 Japanese yen, from 82.52 yen

* 67.05 euro cents, from 66.95 euro cents

(*Currency closes taken at 1700 AEST previous local session)

Originally published as Aussie dollar creeps higher