australian-dollar-bank-notes-calculator - AUD

The Australian dollar is lower against the US dollar on Wednesday, adding to the steep losses already felt this week with the fall below the key 0.60 level.

AUD/USD was down by 247 pips (-4.12%) to 0.5751 with a daily range of 0.5701 to 0.6028 as of 5pm GMT. The currency pair is crashing with no technical support beneath 0.60 meaning a drop of 300 points in 24 hours down to 0.57.

Australian dollar dropped alongside global stocks

Nobody appears to be trying to ‘catch a falling knife’ in the Aussie dollar, which added to losses under a barrage of US dollar strength. This is particularly so ahead of the expected policy announcement from the Reserve Bank of Australia on Thursday. As for the schedule of events, the RBA bulletin will be at 11.30am AEDT, the monetary policy announcement will be at 2.30pm AEDT (GMT-11) and the speech by Governor Phillip Lowe will be at 4pm AEDT.

It would now be a huge surprise and big disappointment to markets if a new quantitative easing program was not announced for Australia. Typically news of QE would weaken a currency because of the money-printing it implies but in the currently stressed markets, any new policy that falls short is being heavily punished with a weaker currency.

Leading Australian banks have been lowering their forecast for the Australian economy, adding weight to the Aussie sell-off. West Pac revised lower forecast for just a week-and-a-half ago. It expects growth of -0.6% in the first half of the year, meaning a technical recession, while ANZ also expects a recession. Both banks expect unemployment to rise over 7%.

US dollar rallies with DXY over 100

The US dollar is soaring against most major currencies with the dollar index (ticker DXY) up to a three year high and above the widely watched threshold of 100. Shortages in US dollars aborad are leading to stresses n funding markets and are adding to the anxiety across financial markets and sending investors flocking to the safety of the world reserve currency the US dollar.