The Australian dollar is lower

THE Australian dollar is down against its US counterpart as the greenback stays steady in the last New York trading session.

THE Australian dollar is down against its US counterpart as the greenback stays steady in the last New York trading session.

At 0635 AEDT on Monday, the Australian dollar was worth 76.36 US cents, down from 76.43 US cents on Friday.

The US dollar was flat on Friday as a Federal Reserve official’s seemingly dovish remarks and uninspiring data on the US economy “squelched” the sanguine mood from earlier this week.

New York Fed president William Dudley, seen as one of the most important members of the Fed’s rate-setting committee, said the central bank was in no rush to tighten monetary policy.

His comments followed less-than-stellar data on US consumer spending that showed that even as confidence hit its highest level in more than 16 years, Americans are still holding their wallets tightly.

Westpac’s Imre Speizer said the Australia dollar had slipped from 76.60 to 76.23 in the offshore session.

He said he expected the Aussie to stay within the 76-77.00 US cent range on Monday.

Event risks for the week included: “Australia retail sales is expected to rise 0.3 per cent in February (consensus and Westpac) with consumer sentiment slipping back into ‘cautiously pessimistic’ territory in December-February.

“February dwelling approvals is expected by Westpac to decline one per cent as the bulk of the high rise drop now looks to have passed but there is still likely to be some residual weakness coming through.”

The local currency also fell against the yen but was flat against the euro.

CURRENCY SNAPSHOT AT 0635 AEDT ON MONDAY

One Australian dollar buys:

* 76.36 US cents, from 76.43 on Friday

* 85.06 Japanese yen, from 85.51 yen

* 71.59 euro cents, from 71.59 euro cents

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

Originally published as The Australian dollar is lower