The Australian dollar was higher today, bolstered by a lift on equity markets.
At midday, the Australian dollar was trading at 86.79 US cents, up 0.13 per cent from Friday’s close of 86.68 US cents. It was also buying 77.61 yen, 63.5 euro cents and 55.52 pence.
Since 7am, the local unit has traded between 86.51 and 87.24 US cents.
Commonwealth Bank senior currency strategist, Joseph Capurso, said movements on currency markets had been subdued with a lack of major economic data releases in Asia today.
‘‘It (The Australian dollar) has been in a fairly tight band,’’ Mr Capurso said.
A late rebound on US equity markets on Friday helped drive the Australian dollar start the local session higher.
The local currency started the domestic session at 86.85 US cents today at 7am.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 0.1 per cent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite ended 0.74 per cent higher.
That positive sentiment has flowed through to the local sharemarket with the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index up 0.78 per cent higher.
Mr Capurso said currency markets were awaiting the release of key economic data later in the week.
‘‘Thursday is going to be the big day in the week with labour force in Australia and US retail sales,’’ he said.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics is scheduled to release its labour force report for January on Thursday.
Financial markets are looking for 15,000 jobs to have been added in January, and the unemployment rate to rise 0.1 percentage point to 5.6 per cent.
Australia’s unemployment rate fell 0.1 percentage points to 5.5 per cent in December, while a total of 35,200 jobs were added to the economy, the ABS said.
Meanwhile, retail sales in the US are forecast to rise by 0.3 per cent in January, after falling by 0.3 per cent the previous month.
Mr Capurso forecasts the Australian dollar to trade between 86 and 87 US cents during the rest of the Asian session.
AAP
