The Australian dollar advanced today as consumer sentiment improved this month, reducing incentive for the central bank to lower its interest rates.
The Westpac Melbourne Institute Index of Consumer Sentiment rose 7.7 percent in February. The rise followed the 0.6 percent increase in January. Investors trimmed their bets on an interest rate cut at the next meeting of the Reserve Bank of Australia. It is still likely that the central bank will slash rates, just not in the immediate future.
AUD/USD rose from 1.0303 to 1.0331, reaching 1.0359 intraday, and AUD/JPY went up from 96.31 to 96.70 as of 14:10 GMT today.
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