The Australian dollar was higher on Friday despite a lukewarm response to the US president’s speech on the economy.
At 1700 AEST, the Australian dollar was trading at 106.28 US cents, up a quarter of a US cent from 105.96 cents on Thursday.
Since 0700 AEST on Friday, the local unit traded between 105.73 US cents and 106.36 cents.
US President Barack Obama has told Congress he will lay out how he intends to reduce America’s ballooning budget deficit on September 19.
‘‘A week from Monday, I’ll be releasing a more ambitious deficit plan - a plan that will not only cover the cost of this jobs bill, but stabilise our debt in the long run,’’ Obama said, unveiling a $US447 billion ($420 billion) jobs initiative.
CMC Markets senior FX dealer Tim Waterer said there was an indecisive response to the US president’s speech.
‘‘Whilst Obama’s speech may have brought a standing ovation on Capitol Hill, the jobs plan did not exactly receive the same rousing reception from financial markets,’’ he said.
‘‘We had Dow (Jones) futures moving all over the place while Obama was speaking and that was sending the Aussie within a 20 pip either side of the 106.00 US-cent mark in morning trade.
‘‘The market spent most of the day just trying to work out the pros and cons of Obama’s speech and his jobs plan, but how it turns out in practice is, I guess, that’s the big question.’’
Mr Waterer said there wasn’t much of a reaction in currencies to the release of Chinese August inflation figures, which came in pretty much as expected.
‘‘That had the potential to cause a stir in markets if it came in on the high side of expectations, but it didn’t cause much concern,’’ he said.
The RBA’s trade weighted index was at 76.7, up from 76.4 on Thursday.
AAP