The pair benefited overnight from a squeezing of long US dollar positions in an illiquid NY holiday market combined with further Aussie-yen buying following the break above the Y100.00 level for the first time since May 2013 with the move looking a little overdone. Aussie-dollar started this morning’s session at $0.8686 after hittinga high of $0.8720 last night during the US hours. It re-visited the $0.8700 mark after the release of the Westpac-MI consumer sentiment reading, which showed small gains and reaching a high of $0.8708. Gains tapered off after that and aussie-dollar then turned lower. It traded down to $0.8690 a few minutes before the release of Australian Q3 wage price index and further extended that to a $0.8677 low after that. In line with a late morning US dollar retreat, aussie-dollar rebounded to $0.8702 but found difficulty extending that to the earlier peaks. Aussie-dollar was last at $0.8681 with immediate resistance seen above the $0.8720 US session high, from $0.8726, with offers then seen further up from $0.8750.
