The Australian dollar is lower

THE Australian dollar is down against its US counterpart, hitting a four-month low after Donald Trump again targeted the imports issue.

THE Australian dollar is down against its US counterpart, hitting a four-month low after US president Donald Trump again targeted the imports issue, before retracing some lost ground.

At 0635 AEST on Friday, the Australian dollar was worth 74.67 US cents, down from 74.84 US cents on Thursday.

Westpac’s Imre Speizer said commodity currencies had again been hit by reports and events in the US with its trade protectionist stance hitting weighing on the Australian dollar.

“Commodity currencies were again under pressure, coinciding with the Trump Administration’s latest attack on imports — aluminium,” he said in a note on Friday morning.

“AUD made a fresh four-month low of 0.7440 before rebounding to 0.7470 in New York.” “The earlier break below the 0.7500-0.7600 range has been sustained, and targets the 0.7400 area. The US administration’s trade protectionist policies are weighing.”

CURRENCY SNAPSHOT AT 0635 AEST ON FRIDAY

One Australian dollar buys:

* 74.67 US cents, from 74.84 on Thursday

* 83.06 Japanese yen, from 83.34 yen

* 68.67 euro cents, from 68.59 euro cents

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

Originally published as The Australian dollar is lower