Australian Dollar Recovers After RBA Keeps Key Rate Unchanged

(RTTNews) - The Australian dollar recovered from recent lows against other major currencies in the Asian session on Tuesday, after the Reserve Bank of Australia maintained its interest rates at a 12-year high for a fifth straight meeting.

The policy board of the RBA, led by Governor Michele Bullock, decided to hold the cash rate target at 4.35 percent.

Inflation is easing but has been doing so more slowly than previously expected and it remains high, the central bank said.

"The path of interest rates that will best ensure that inflation returns to target in a reasonable timeframe remains uncertain and the Board is not ruling anything in or out," the RBA said.

Asian shares gained after a rally in several technology shares drove Wall Street to another record high overnight.

The dollar took a breather ahead of key U.S. retail sales and business activity data as well as speeches from several Federal Reserve officials later on Tuesday. Gold was little changed while oil consolidated recent gains.

In the Asian trading today, the Australian dollar rose to more than 2-week high of 1.0844 against the NZ dollar, from an early low of 1.0782. The aussie may test resistance near the 1.09 region.

Against the U.S. dollar, the Canadian dollar and the yen, the aussie advanced to 4-day highs of 0.6628, 0.9110 and 104.78 from early lows of 0.6601, 0.9071 and 104.03, respectively. If the aussie extends its uptrend, it is likely to find resistance around 0.68 against the greenback, 0.93 against the loonie and 105 against the yen.

Moving away from an early low of 1.6176 against the euro, the aussie edged up to 1.6246. On the upside, 1.60 is seen as the next resistance levels for the aussie.

Germany's ZEW economic sentiment survey results for June and Eurozone final inflation data for May were released in the European session.

In the New York session, U.S. retail sales for May, U.S. industrial and manufacturing production, U.S. Redbook report and business inventories for April are slated for release.