Australian Dollar Advances After RBA Minutes

13:25, 20th April 2021

(RTTNews) - The Australian dollar climbed against its major counterparts in the Asian session on Tuesday, after the minutes from the Reserve Bank of Australia's latest meeting showed that policy makers assessed that the country's economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic was proceeding more quickly than anticipated.

Minutes from the RBA's April 6 meeting showed that members were worried over the unemployment and subdued price pressures. To that end, the bank said it does not expect to hike its benchmark lending rate from the current record low of 0.10 percent until at least 2024 at the earliest.

At the meeting, the bank kept its benchmark lending rate unchanged at the record low of 0.10 percent. The central bank retained the target yield on the 3-year Australian government bond at around 0.1 percent.

Further, China kept its benchmark lending rates unchanged, as widely expected.

The one-year loan prime rate was retained at 3.85 percent and the five-year loan prime rate was maintained at 4.65 percent.

Asian markets are trading mixed as investors weighed corporate earnings and recent spikes in virus cases.

U.S. President Joe Biden held a meeting on Monday with a bipartisan group of lawmakers who have all served as governors or mayors, as the White House seeks a deal on his more than $2 trillion jobs and infrastructure proposal.

"I am prepared to compromise and prepared to see what we can do and what we can come together on," Biden said at the outset of the meeting.

The aussie climbed to a 4-day high of 1.5442 against the euro and near a 6-week high of 0.9756 against the loonie, off its early lows of 1.5524 and 0.9711, respectively. The aussie is seen finding resistance around 1.49 against the euro and 1.00 against the loonie.

The aussie touched near 5-week highs of 0.7809 against the greenback and 84.70 against the yen, rising from its prior lows of 0.7751 and 83.79, respectively. The next possible resistance for the aussie is seen around 0.80 against the greenback and 0.88 against the yen.

The aussie recovered to 1.0823 against the kiwi, from more than a 4-week low of 1.0790 seen earlier in the session. On the upside, 1.105 is possibly seen as its next resistance level.