Investing.com - The Australian dollar moved higher against the U.S. dollar Friday, following announcements from European finance officials of moves aimed at bolstering liquidity in euro-zone financial institutions.
AUD/USD hit 0.9764 in early Asian trade, the pair’s highest since Thursday; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.9762, rising 0.17%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.9487, Wednesday’s low, and resistance at 0.9878, last Thursday’s high.
European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said Thursday the ECB would begin a two-fold program to ease concerns in financial markets over Europe’s sovereign debt threats.
Trichet said the ECB would begin buying USD53 billion in covered bonds and institute longer term refinancing operations to commercials banks in the euro-zone beginning this month. The ECB voted to maintain interest rates unchanged at 1.5%.
The Bank of England also decided to leave interest rates at a record low 0.5%, a rate it has stuck to since March 2009, and increase the size of its own asset purchase program by USD115 billion.
Earlier Thursday, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that the number of Americans filing for initial jobless benefits for the week ending September 30 rose by 6,000, to a seasonally adjusted 401,000.
Market expectations were for jobless claims to rise to 411,000 after hitting 395,000 the previous week.
The encouraging labor numbers lifted Wall Street shares, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average adding 1.68%, the Nasdaq Composite Index rose, and the S&P 500 was lifted 1.83%.
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On Friday, the Australian Industry Group reported that its Performance of Construction Index (PCI) fell 2.1 points to 30.0 in September, the lowest reading on industry conditions since February of 2009.
The sector remained well below the 50 point level separating expansion from contraction for the 16th consecutive month.
In Sydney, Australian shares moved higher in early Friday trade, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 gaining 2.08% 4,121.70.
Meanwhile, the Australian dollar was up against both the euro and the Japanese yen, with EUR/AUD falling 0.23% to hit 1.3752 and AUD/JPY up fractionally by 0.04% to hit 74.79.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics was scheduled to released its latest unemployment figures later Friday.