AUD/USD dives over 1% to near 0.6440 as Australian Dollar underperforms across the board
- AUD/USD plunges to near 0.6440 as the announcement of additional port fees by China has battered the Australian Dollar.
- RBA minutes showed that policymakers see signs of sticky inflationary pressures.
- Investors await Fed Powell’s speech, Australian employment data.
The AUD/USD pair is down over 1% to near 0.6440 during the European trading session on Tuesday. The Aussie pair has declined significantly as the Australian Dollar (AUD) underperforms its peers on announcement from Beijing that it will begin charging additional port fees on ocean shipping firms that move everything from holiday toys to crude oil, Reuters reported.
Australian Dollar Price Today
The table below shows the percentage change of Australian Dollar (AUD) against listed major currencies today. Australian Dollar was the weakest against the Japanese Yen.
| USD | EUR | GBP | JPY | CAD | AUD | NZD | CHF | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| USD | 0.17% | 0.53% | -0.15% | 0.27% | 1.02% | 0.67% | 0.04% | |
| EUR | -0.17% | 0.35% | -0.30% | 0.08% | 0.88% | 0.50% | -0.12% | |
| GBP | -0.53% | -0.35% | -0.67% | -0.25% | 0.51% | 0.19% | -0.47% | |
| JPY | 0.15% | 0.30% | 0.67% | 0.42% | 1.14% | 0.78% | 0.15% | |
| CAD | -0.27% | -0.08% | 0.25% | -0.42% | 0.79% | 0.40% | -0.24% | |
| AUD | -1.02% | -0.88% | -0.51% | -1.14% | -0.79% | -0.38% | -1.00% | |
| NZD | -0.67% | -0.50% | -0.19% | -0.78% | -0.40% | 0.38% | -0.62% | |
| CHF | -0.04% | 0.12% | 0.47% | -0.15% | 0.24% | 1.00% | 0.62% |
The heat map shows percentage changes of major currencies against each other. The base currency is picked from the left column, while the quote currency is picked from the top row. For example, if you pick the Australian Dollar from the left column and move along the horizontal line to the US Dollar, the percentage change displayed in the box will represent AUD (base)/USD (quote).
The scenario is unfavorable for the Australian Dollar, given that the Australian economy relies heavily on its exports to China.
On the domestic front, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) minutes of the September policy meeting signaled that the monetary policy still remains restrictive. However, officials remained cautious over the inflation outlook, with inflation in housing and the services sector is proving to be sticky.
Going forward, investors will focus on the Australian employment data for September, which will be released on Thursday. The labor market report is expected to show that the economy added 17K fresh workers after laying off 5.4K employees in August.
Meanwhile, the US Dollar (USD) trades higher as trade tensions between the United States (US) and China have started fading. Additional US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has also confirmed that President Donald Trump and Chinese leader XI Jinping are on track to meet later this month in South Korea.
In Tuesday’s session, investors will focus on the speech from Federal Reserve (Fed) Chair Jerome Powell, which is scheduled at 16:20 GMT. Investors would look for cues about whether the Fed will cut interest rates by 50 basis points (bps) in the remaining year as signaled by the CME FedWatch tool.
US Dollar FAQs
The US Dollar (USD) is the official currency of the United States of America, and the ‘de facto’ currency of a significant number of other countries where it is found in circulation alongside local notes. It is the most heavily traded currency in the world, accounting for over 88% of all global foreign exchange turnover, or an average of $6.6 trillion in transactions per day, according to data from 2022. Following the second world war, the USD took over from the British Pound as the world’s reserve currency. For most of its history, the US Dollar was backed by Gold, until the Bretton Woods Agreement in 1971 when the Gold Standard went away.
The most important single factor impacting on the value of the US Dollar is monetary policy, which is shaped by the Federal Reserve (Fed). The Fed has two mandates: to achieve price stability (control inflation) and foster full employment. Its primary tool to achieve these two goals is by adjusting interest rates. When prices are rising too quickly and inflation is above the Fed’s 2% target, the Fed will raise rates, which helps the USD value. When inflation falls below 2% or the Unemployment Rate is too high, the Fed may lower interest rates, which weighs on the Greenback.
In extreme situations, the Federal Reserve can also print more Dollars and enact quantitative easing (QE). QE is the process by which the Fed substantially increases the flow of credit in a stuck financial system. It is a non-standard policy measure used when credit has dried up because banks will not lend to each other (out of the fear of counterparty default). It is a last resort when simply lowering interest rates is unlikely to achieve the necessary result. It was the Fed’s weapon of choice to combat the credit crunch that occurred during the Great Financial Crisis in 2008. It involves the Fed printing more Dollars and using them to buy US government bonds predominantly from financial institutions. QE usually leads to a weaker US Dollar.
Quantitative tightening (QT) is the reverse process whereby the Federal Reserve stops buying bonds from financial institutions and does not reinvest the principal from the bonds it holds maturing in new purchases. It is usually positive for the US Dollar.
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