AUD/USD: Aussie Touches 5-Months High before Year End

The Australian dollar is finishing a slow trading week on a positive note as it touched a new 5-month high against the greenback. On the foreign exchange market, the AUD/USD exchange rate on Thursday settled at 0.6945, registering a 0.32% gain.

The Australian dollar is on the verge to post its best quarter against the US dollar since Q3 of 2017. The Aussie was well supported on the interbank market since the beginning of December tracking its seasonal pattern.

The easing trade tensions between the world’s two most powerful economies coupled with optimism around Chinese economy have benefited the AUD pairs. The liquidity is slowly starting to return to the market after trading was subdued on Christmas holiday. However, normal trading conditions are only expected to return back to the market after the New Year.

In other news, analysts at leading global investment bank Goldman Sachs see the US dollar softening in 2020. Goldman only sees a “mild depreciation” of about 1.5% – 2.0% in 2020, which can help the Aussie bullish sentiment.

“Despite improving investor risk appetite we see only modest downside for the U.S. Dollar in 2020 because the American economy still looks much sturdier than China or Europe. However, FX markets should be anything but dull, with plenty of opportunity to collect carry, and to position for macroeconomic divergence and major political events,” said Zach Pandl, currency strategist at Goldman Sachs.

During the London trading hours Aussie was seen quoted higher and trading within a range of 0.6941 and 0.6976.

Elsewhere, the precious metal Gold inched higher for the third consecutive day, touching a 7-week high. The case for a stronger Gold price was motivated by its seasonal pattern and a combination of disappointing US data and lower interest rates in the US. Gold price settled at $1,511 an ounce on Thursday, registering a 0.73% gain and was seen almost unchanged at around $1,509 ahead of the New York trading session.

The dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of major currencies slipped lower and was seen quoted as low as 97.17 during London trading hours.

The domestic benchmark equity index S&P/ASX 200 index settled on Thursday at 6794.2 registering a modest 0.13% gain. Year-to-date the Australian stock market has gained double digit returns of 20.33%.


Currencylive.com is a news site only and not a currency trading platform.
Currencylive.com is a site operated by TransferWise Inc. (“We”, “Us”), a Delaware Corporation. We do not guarantee that the website will operate in an uninterrupted or error-free manner or is free of viruses or other harmful components. The content on our site is provided for general information only and is not intended as an exhaustive treatment of its subject. We expressly disclaim any contractual or fiduciary relationship with you on the basis of the content of our site, any you may not rely thereon for any purpose. You should consult with qualified professionals or specialists before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Although we make reasonable efforts to update the information on our site, we make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether express or implied, that the content on our site is accurate, complete or up to date, and DISCLAIM ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Some of the content posted on this site has been commissioned by Us, but is the work of independent contractors. These contractors are not employees, workers, agents or partners of TransferWise and they do not hold themselves out as one. The information and content posted by these independent contractors have not been verified or approved by Us. The views expressed by these independent contractors on currencylive.com do not represent our views.