Oil price plunge hits dollar

THE Australian dollar has extended losses against its US counterpart, despite the greenback’s underperformance.

The Aussie dollar is also lower against the yen and the euro.

THE Australian dollar has extended losses against its US counterpart, despite the greenback’s underperformance, as the price of oil falls another two per cent. At 0635 AEST on Thursday, the Australian dollar was worth 75.53 US cents, down from 75.67 US cents on Wednesday.

Westpac Imre Speizer the US dollar had underperformed against most major currencies in the overnight session, but had outperformed the minors. “The US dollar index is down 0.2 per cent on the day,” he said in a morning note.

“(While) outperformer GBP bounced off 1.2589 (a two-month low) to 1.2710 after BoE (Bank of England) chief economist Haldane said he favoured tightening, a sharp contrast to the Governor’s comments a day earlier.”

Looking, ahead to Thursday, Mr Speizer said he could see the local currency falling further. “The firmer US dollar has capped AUD/USD recently, and further slippage to the 0.7530 area is possible today.” The Aussie dollar is also lower against the yen and the euro.

CURRENCY SNAPSHOT AT 0635 AEST ON THURSDAY

One Australian dollar buys:

* 75.53 US cents, from 75.67 on Wednesday

* 84.16 Japanese yen, from 84.21 yen

* 67.65 euro cents, from 67.96 euro cents

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

Originally published as Oil price plunge hits dollar