Commodities pull down dollar

THE Australian dollar is lower against its US counterpart after crude oil and iron ore fell three per cent.

THE Australian dollar is lower against its US counterpart after crude oil and iron ore fell three per cent. At 0647 AEST on Thursday, the Australian dollar was worth 74.32 US cents, down from 74.50 US cents on Wednesday.

Westpac’s Imre Speizer said the Aussie dollar was probably pulled down by commodity price falls. “Underperformer AUD peaked at 0.7468 during the London morning and then fell to 0.7425, probably responding to the continuing decline in iron ore prices (down 40 per cent since February),” he said in a morning note.

An event risk on Thursday would be the retail sales figures “expected by Westpac to show a 0.3 per cent rise, a fairly muted rebound from low readings in February and March (weather related)”.

He said he expected the Australian dollar would be hemmed in by low commodity prices and trade inside the 74-75 US cent range. The local currency was also lower against the yen and the euro.

CURRENCY SNAPSHOT AT 0647 AEST ON THURSDAY

One Australian dollar buys:

* 74.32 US cents, from 74.50 on Wednesday

* 82.29 Japanese yen, from 82.69 yen

* 66.13 euro cents, from 66.59 euro cents

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

Originally published as Commodities pull down dollar