Australian Dollar Climbs On Strong China Data

The Australian dollar appreciated against its most major counterparts in the European session on Friday, as upbeat China industrial profits data pointed to a continued recovery from the coronavirus outbreak.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that China's industrial profits expanded strongly in October as the economy showed signals of robust rebound from the coronavirus driven downturn.

Industrial profits advanced 28.2 percent on a yearly basis in October, marking the sixth consecutive rise in profits.

U.S. President Donald Trump said late Thursday that he would leave the White House if Joe Biden is formally confirmed as the next president by the Electoral College.

The upside, however, remained limited as questions were raised about the efficacy of the Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine and the British pharmaceutical giant said it would likely run a new global trial.

U.S. markets will reopen today for a half session following the Thanksgiving holiday.

The aussie spiked up to near a 3-month high of 0.7386 against the greenback, from a 2-day low of 0.7353 seen at 5:30 pm ET. The aussie is likely to challenge resistance around the 0.75 level.

The aussie bounced off to 76.83 against the yen, from a 2-day low of 76.50 set at 9:00 pm ET. If the aussie rises further, it may find resistance around the 78.00 level.

The aussie rallied to a 2-day high of 1.6151 versus the euro, after a brief drop to 1.6200 at 8:00 pm ET. On the upside, 1.58 is likely seen as its next resistance level.

The aussie advanced to 0.9602 against the loonie, its strongest level since September 22. But it retraced some of its gains and was trading at 0.9578. The aussie is poised to find support around the 0.94 level.

The aussie held steady against the kiwi, after edging up to 1.0512 in the previous session. The pair had ended yesterday's trading session at 1.0491.

Survey data from ANZ showed that New Zealand consumer confidence weakened in November after improving last month.

The consumer confidence index fell to 106.9 in November from 108.7 a month ago.