Australian Dollar Falls Amid Risk Aversion

(RTTNews) - The Australian dollar weakened against other major currencies in the Asian session on Friday amid risk aversion, following the broadly sell-off on Wall Street overnight, after the recent release of stronger-than-expected U.S. economic data and the slightly hawkish Fed minutes renewed concerns the U.S. Fed will keep interest rates higher for longer than previously thought. The concerning escalation in the tensions between Taiwan and China is also weighing on the markets.

Losses across most sectors led by mining and energy stocks amid tumbling commodity prices, and technology stocks, also weighed on the investor sentiment.

Crude oil prices settled lower amid concerns about the outlook for demand, and on data showing an unexpected jump in crude inventories in the U.S. last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July sank $0.70 or 0.9 percent at $76.87 a barrel.

In the Asian trading today, the Australian dollar fell to nearly a 2-week low of 0.6592 against the U.S. dollar and more than a 3-week low of 1.6395 against the euro, from yesterday's closing quotes of 0.6606 and 1.6366, respectively. If the aussie extends its downtrend, it is likely to find support around 0.64 against the greenback and 1.65 against the euro.

The aussie slipped to 103.50 against the yen, from yesterday's closing value of 103.65. On the downside, 101.00 is seen as the next support level for the aussie.

In economic news, Japan's core inflation rate slowed to 2.2 percent in April from 2.6 percent in March, in line with expectations. However, the figure kept the Bank of Japan under pressure to tighten policy further as it remained above the central bank's 2 precent target.

Against the Canada and the New Zealand dollars, the aussie edged down to 0.9055 and 1.0818 from Thursday's closing quotes of 0.9067 and 1.0826, respectively. The aussie may test support near 0.89 against the loonie and 1.07 against the kiwi.

Looking ahead, Canada retail sales data for March and manufacturing sales for April, U.S. goods orders for April, U.S. University of Michigan's final consumer sentiment for May and U.S. Baker Hughes weekly oil rig count data are slated for release in the New York session.