The Australian dollar is slightly lower as the lack of positive economic news
blunts the currency's ability to lock in any gains.
At 0700 AEST on
Friday, the local unit was trading at 97.63 US cents, down from 97.73 cents on
Thursday.
Since 1700 AEST on Thursday, the Australian dollar has traded
between 97.12 US cents and 98.14 cents.
Westpac New Zealand senior market
strategist Imre Speizer said it was a quiet night for currency
markets.
"We had a mixed session for commodity markets, equity markets
and bond markets," he said from Auckland.
"We started off low when London
opened, then rose and fell back down again."
Mr Speizer said
manufacturing data from purchasing managers' index (PMI) surveys from Europe and
China dampened market optimism.
"You had the Chinese PMI yesterday which
was negative and you had some (Chinese) government officials saying that some
lending targets are not going to be met.
"So, they're telling us the
demand for credit in China is falling away with this slower economic
growth.
"The European data was fairly weak. Those PMI manufacturing
surveys were weak right across the board and they're now affecting
Germany."
Mr Speizer said that news about the euro zone debt crisis, and
progress on a possible solution, would be the main driver for currency markets
over the next few days.
He said he expected the Australian dollar to
trade in a range between 97.12 US cents and 97.80 cents on Friday.
