Australian Dollar Falls As RBA Lowe Dismisses Rate Hike Speculation

The Australian dollar was lower against its most major counterparts in the Asian session on Thursday, as a lockdown in Sydney was extended by another week and the Reserve Bank of Australia Governor rejected speculation for an early tightening of monetary policy.

The Sydney lockdown has been extended till July 16 as the country's biggest city struggled with rising Delta variant cases.

In a speech in Sydney, RBA chief Philip Lowe said that cash rate will remain at current record lows of 0.1 percent until 2024.

The jobless rate would require to fall further to 4 percent in order to lift wages and inflation towards target, Lowe noted.

"We still expect the lift in aggregate wages growth will be gradual. We also expect that it will take until 2024 for inflation to be sustainably within the 2 to 3% target range," Lowe added.

The aussie depreciated to 0.7430 against the greenback, its lowest level since December 2020. On the downside, 0.72 is likely seen as its next support level.

The aussie weakened to near a 5-month low of 81.62 against the yen and more than a 5-month low of 1.5889 against the euro, from yesterday's closing values of 82.72 and 1.5741, respectively. The next key support for the aussie is seen around 80.00 against the yen and 1.62 against the euro.

The Australian currency dipped to a 2-day low of 0.9324 against the loonie, from Wednesday's close of 0.9336. The aussie is seen finding support near the 0.92 level.

In contrast, the aussie rebounded to 1.0687 against the kiwi, after touching 1.0655, which was its weakest level since June 1. Next near term resistance for the currency is likely seen around the 1.09 level.

Looking ahead, the European Central Bank publishes the account of the monetary policy meeting of the Governing Council held on June 9-10 at 7:30 am ET.

U.S. weekly jobless claims for the week ended July 3 and consumer credit for May will be published in the New York session.