The Australian dollar is up against the US dollar on Friday.
It caps a dismal weak for the greenback and a stellar return from decade lows for the Aussie.
Talk of a third stimulus package in Australia that will support businesses that lose all their customers and would otherwise shutdown during lockdown has helped keep the Aussie strong after a good week.
A sharp jump in US jobless insurance claims has added potency to an already sizeable drop in the dollar since the Federal Reserve introduced new measures that were essentially intended to curb its strength.
AUD/USD was higher by 82 pips (+1.37%) to 0.6146 with a daily range of 0.6024 to 0.6156 as of 5pm GMT.
The currency pair gained over 100 pips from its lows of the day to retake the 1.61 handle to make a one-week high.
Australian dollar gains on hopes for third stimulus package
Australia is part of the G20 group of nations that struck a deal to co-ordinate a $7.5 trillion global response to the coronavirus on Friday.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison described the thinking behind a new stimulus effort, saying “Some businesses will find they won’t have the customers to keep going, for various reasons. We want these businesses to effectively go into a hibernation, which means on the other side, the employees come back, the opportunities come back, [and] the economy comes back,”
On Friday Australia said it would force all new arrivals including citizens into hotel quarantine in order to prevent imported cases of the coronavirus. Defence force personnel will be enlisted to help make sure people stay in home isolation.
US dollar remains under pressure after jobless claims
The dollar is on course for one of its worst week in years as traders react to some of the worst employment data ever recorded and new measures at flooding the global financial system with US dollars, and devaluing them in the process of doing so.
Next week all eyes will be on non-farm payrolls where it is expected the record 100+ American monthly job gains will end.
