Australian Dollar Climbs On Easing Fed Worries

(RTTNews) - The Australian dollar strengthened against its major counterparts in the Asian session on Friday, as comments from a Federal Reserve official eased worries about the possibility of aggressive rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.

Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said that the central bank is likely to pause interest rate hikes sometime this summer.

Bostic's comments raised hopes that the Fed will stick with a 25-bps rate hike at its next meeting in March.

Survey from Judo Bank showed that Australia's services sector bounced back up into expansion in February, with a services PMI score of 50.7.

That's up from 48.6 in January, and it moves back above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.

The aussie advanced to 2-day highs of 1.5709 against the euro and 1.0846 against the kiwi, from its early lows of 1.5751 and 1.0804, respectively. The aussie may find resistance around 1.54 against the euro and 1.10 against the kiwi.

The aussie edged up to 0.6761 against the greenback and 0.9176 against the loonie, reversing from an early low of 0.6720 and a 3-day low of 0.9135, respectively. The aussie is seen facing resistance around 0.69 against the greenback and 0.94 against the loonie.

The aussie touched 92.24 against the yen, its highest level since February 23. The currency is seen finding resistance around the 96.00 level.

Looking ahead, PMI reports from major European economies and Eurozone PPI for January are due in the European session.

Canada building permits for January and U.S. ISM non-manufacturing PMI for February will be released in the New York session.