Australia Dollar Receives Help from Commodities

The Australian dollar rose today, rallying to the highest price in almost two weeks against the US dollar, as commodities gained and increased appeal of growth-related currencies to Forex traders.

The Leading Index of Melbourne Institute showed the annual growth of 0.1 percent in June. That’s not a bad result, compared to the 0.1 percent decline in the month before, but far below the long-term trend of 2.8 percent. The Wage Price Index rose 0.9 percent in the second quarter of 2011 after increasing 0.8 percent in the previous three months. The Thomson Reuters/Jefferies CRB index gained as much as 1.3 percent.

The Aussie gained about 0.4 percent against the greenback today. Earlier it reached $1.0601, the strongest level since August 4. The Australian currency lost some of its gains since, but still remains strong.

AUD/USD rallied from 1.0482 to 1.0538 today as of 21:48 GMT. EUR/AUD fell from 1.3737 to 1.3684 after reaching the daily low of 1.3646. AUD/JPY advanced from 80.50 to 80.72.

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