NEWS / Foreign Exchange

Australian dollar marches past 92 U.S. cents

The Australian dollar rose past 92 U.S. cents to hit a fresh 23-?? year high on Monday, boosted by growing appetite for riskier assets and widening interest rate differentials over U.S. assets.
The Aussie was also helped by a rally in gold to a 28-year peak and firm base metals prices. Australia is a big exporter of natural resources and rising commodity prices help boost the country's terms of trade and the Aussie dollar. Financial markets are pricing in nearly a 90 % chance that the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will raise interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point next month. The benchmark cash rate is at a decade high of 6.50 %.

Dollar hits record low before expected Fed rate cut

The dollar slid to a record low against a basket of major currencies early on Monday, extending its broad sell-off on expectations that the Federal Reserve will trim interest rates this week and possibly again later this year.
The euro vaulted to a record high of USD 1.4426 on trading platform EBS, the highest since its launch in 1999, before retreating to USD 1.4405, up 0.1 % from late U.S. trade.

Stocks hit new peaks

Asian stocks rose to a fresh life high on Monday as investors bet there will be a U.S. interest rate cut this week. Japan's Nikkei average climbed 1.1 % to one-week highs, while MSCI's measure of other Asia Pacific stocks advanced 0.9 %. The MSCI index hit an all-time high of 579.41.

Oil at new record

Oil leapt to its third record high in a row on Monday as a brief halt to one-fifth of Mexico's production added fuel to a rally driven by a stand-off between Turkey and Kurdish rebels, a weak dollar and winter supply fears.
U.S. light crude for December delivery jumped as much as 1 % to touch a record high of USD 92.79 a barrel, and was trading up 80 cents at USD 92.66. Oil prices have soared about a third since mid-August, when they stood below USD 70.