Australian Dollar Falls Amid Risk Aversion

The Australian dollar weakened against the other major currencies in the early European session on Friday amid risk aversion, after a sell-off in government bonds hit rate-sensitive stocks on Wall Street overnight and ECB policymaker Ewald Nowotny said the central bank will decide in December on the mechanism for prolonging the QE program. Investors also remain cautious ahead of the U.S. GDP data due out later in the day.

The U.K.'s FTSE 100 index is currently down 0.47 percent or 32.59 points at 6,953, France's CAC 40 index is down 0.13 percent or 5.68 points at 4,527 and Germany's DAX is down 0.70 percent or 75.38 points at 10,641.

The U.S. government will publish its first estimate of third-quarter gross domestic product later today, and the numbers can truly alter the course of a December rate hike.

In the Asian trading today, the aussie held steady against its major rivals.

In the early European trading, the Australian dollar fell to an 8-day low of 1.4411 against the euro, from an early high of 1.4339. The aussie may test support near the 1.47 euro.

Against the U.S., the New Zealand and the Canadian dollars, the aussie dropped to a 2-week low of 0.7573, a 4-day low of 1.0622 and a 3-day low of 1.0142 from early highs of 0.7608, 1.0664 and 1.0175, respectively. If the aussie extends its downtrend, it is likely to find support around 0.74 against the greenback, 1.04 against the kiwi and 0.99 against the loonie.

The aussie slipped to 79.76 against the yen, from an early high of 80.02. On the downside, 77.00 is seen as the next support level for the aussie.

Looking ahead, at 5.00 am ET, European Commission is scheduled to issue euro area economic and business sentiment survey results for October.

In the New York session, Germany's flash consumer price data for October, U.S. third-quarter GDP data, U.S. University of Michigan's final consumer sentiment index for October and U.S. rig count data are due to be released.