The Australian dollar is lower

THE Australian dollar is sharply lower against its US counterpart as the oil price plunges five per cent and the US dollar rebounds.

At 0635 AEST on Friday, the Australian dollar was worth 74.53 US cents, down from 74.91 US cents on Thursday.

Westpac’s Imre Speizer said Brent crude prices fell five per cent with markets underwhelmed by OPEC’s production cuts.

And, while the US dollar rebounded in the London session and interest rates were stable, the Aussie dollar had fallen.

“AUD fell from its afternoon peak of 0.7516 to 0.7451,” he said in a morning note on Friday.

He said he could not see the Aussie heading very high and doubted there would be any fresh breach above 76 US cents for some time.

“The 75.15 (US cent) area is a minor barrier to further upside for now. The modestly weaker-than-expected Australian CPI outcome has added yet another factor capping the Australian dollar: softer commodity prices; a more protectionist stance from US president Trump, and higher US yields if the Fed raises rates in June as we expect. These leave the $A with strong resistance at 0.76.”

The local currency is also lower against the yen and the euro.

CURRENCY SNAPSHOT AT 0635 AEST ON FRIDAY

One Australian dollar buys:

* 74.53 US cents, from 74.91 on Thursday

* 83.38 Japanese yen, from 83.70 yen

* 66.51 euro cents, from 66.71 euro cents

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