The Australian dollar closed lower, continuing its downward trajectory on global uncertainty in the absence of any domestic data.
At 1700 AEST, the Australian dollar was trading at $US0.8693/95, down more than half a cent from Wednesday's close of $US0.8771/74.
It was also buying 70.8 euro cents, 58.5 pence and 78.7 yen in recent trading.
From 0700 AEST on Wednesday, the local unit traded between $US0.8688 and $US0.8737.
ICAP economist Adam Carr said the local unit had continued to lose ground since Tuesday, but it had done ``very little'' during afternoon trade.
''People are just unsure. They know the Aussie dollar should probably be higher, but there's just this weight of pessimism which is a battle,'' he said.
''We really need to get into some heavy hitting Aussie data before we see a sustained breakout.''
He said investors were reluctant to take risks until the next consumer price inflation figure is released and the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) makes its next interest rate decision in July.
Mr Carr said a lot of the concerns over European debt were abating.
''It hasn't completely gone and I think we're very sensitive to news flow,'' he said.
In the medium term the local unit would push above US$0.90 cents.
Mr Carr said debt pessimism in Europe was fading.
''I do think the trajectory is up. It's just a question of timing now for the Aussie dollar.''
He forecast trading would be ''fairly quiet'' and ''fairly thin'' up until a meeting by the US Federal Reserve's policy making arm, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) on Wednesday night (AEST).
At 1600 AEST, the RBA's trade weighted index (TWI) closed at 68.7, down from 69.1 on Tuesday..
AAP