Australian Dollar Rises Amid RBA Rate Hike Speculation

(RTTNews) - The Australian dollar strengthened against other major currencies in the Asian session on Tuesday, as traders are now betting the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will likely raise rates at its November policy meeting.

Meanwhile, the Asian stock markets traded mixed amid declining crude oil prices on signs of increasing supply from the Middle East to pre-war levels despite continued risks to shipping. The G7 also pledged to release 100 million barrels of diesel from strategic emergency reserves.

Concerns about the outlook for interest rates also eased following last week's release of US inflation and US employment data.

In economic news, Australia's Westpac-Melbourne Institute Consumer Sentiment Index fell 4.7 percent on month to a six-month low of 80.4 in October 2026, slowing from a 5.2 percent decline in the prior month while marking a second straight month of decline.

Australia's ANZ-Indeed Job Ads rose 2.2 percent on month in September 2026, slowing from a marginally revised 2.6 percent gain in the previous month despite marking the third straight month of expansion.

In the Asian trading today, the Australian dollar rose to a 6-day high of 0.6977 against the U.S. dollar, from yesterday's closing value of 0.6967. The aussie may test resistance around the 0.71 region.

Against the yen and the Canadian dollar, the aussie advanced to 1-week highs of 110.27 and 0.9951 from Monday's closing quotes of 110.05 and 0.9937, respectively. If the aussie extends its uptrend, it is likely to find resistance around 112.00 against the yen and 1.00 against the loonie.

Against the euro and the NZ dollar, the aussie edged up to 1.6080 and 1.2460 from yesterday's closing quotes of 1.6101 and 1.2446, respectively. On the upside, 1.59 against the euro and 1.25 against the kiwi are seen as the next resistance levels for the aussie.

Looking ahead, Eurozone retail sales for August is due to be released at 5:00 am ET in the European session.

In the New York session, U.S. LMI logistics managers index for September, U.S. weekly ADP employment data, U.S. and Canada trade data for August, Canada Ivey's PMI data for September and U.S. RCM/TIPP economic optimism index for October are slated for release.