By Alex Ho
Investing.com - The Australian dollar traded lower against its U.S. counterpart on Tuesday in Asia after the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) flagged concerns about the coronavirus.
In the minutes of the RBA’s last monetary meeting, the central bank reiterated that low interest rates will probably be required for an extended period, adding that it was prepared to ease policy even further if needed.
The RBA kept the official cash rate unchanged at 0.75% in its last meeting as expected.
The AUD/USD pair fell 0.3% to 0.6692 by 11:30 PM ET (03:30 GMT). The NZD/USD pair also slipped 0.2% to 0.6418.
Meanwhile, the USD/CNY pair gained 0.2% to 6.9940. The Chinese yuan fell today amid a decline in Chinese shares. The Hubei province, considered the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, said new confirmed cases of the virus fell slightly to 1,807 on Monday, compared with 1,933 the previous day.
On Monday, the People’s Bank of China added to its already extensive stimulus measures since the outbreak of the virus in cutting its medium-term financing rate to a new record low.
The safe-haven yen received some support. The USD/JPY pair last traded at 109.74, down 0.1%.
The U.S. Dollar Index inched up 0.1% to 99.078. Financial markets on stateside were closed on Monday due to the President’s Day holiday.
The EUR/USD pair was little changed at 1.0830 ahead of a highly watched German survey. The GBP/USD pair slipped 0.1% to 1.2998.