Australian Dollar Stays Above Parity

Australian dollar dips on commodity prices

Published 8:22 AM, 9 Nov 2010 Last update 1:39 PM, 9 Nov 2010

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The Australian dollar was lower at noon but remained above parity with the US dollar, as waning commodity prices weigh on the currency.

At 1200 AEDT, the Australian dollar was trading at 101.01 US cents, down from Monday's close of 101.32 cents.

Since 0700 AEDT on Tuesday, the local unit traded between 101.01 US cents and 101.35 cents.

CMC Markets foreign exchange dealer Tim Waterer said the unit had come under pressure as commodity prices slipped during the domestic session.

The Australian dollar is a commodity sensitive currency, and often rises and falls in line with resource prices.

"There was a little bit of weakness in the Aussie this morning," Mr Waterer said.

"It's come off for a couple of reasons. There were some stop levels on the euro and we have also had some weakness in the commodity sector in our stock market."

The share market was dragged lower by resource sector shares during the day.

At 1200 AEDT, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down or 0.5 per cent at 4,754.6 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index had fallen 0.46 per cent to 4,833.1 points.

On the ASX 24, the December share price index futures contract was down 37 points at 4,769, with 18,695 contracts traded.

On Thursday, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is to release Labour Force data for September.

Economists expect the jobless rate between 5.1 and 5.3 per cent, broadly unchanged from 5.1 per cent in August.