THE Australian dollar closed lower today after a quiet day in which the currency dipped after softer-than-expected wages data increased the chance of interest rates staying on hold.
At 5pm AEDT, the Australian dollar was trading at $US0.8932/34, down 0.91 per cent from yesterday's close of $US0.9014/16.
Between 7am AEDT and the local close, the unit traded between $US0.8906 and $US0.8937.
4Cast head of research Ray Attrill said there had been a very big "risk of" movement back into the US dollar and the Japanese Yen overnight.
"But with that, there's been very limited follow through in Asia after," he said.
"Everything has just stopped dead really."
Mr Attrill said the risk off sentiment had not carried much further, which had allowed the Australian dollar to steady.
"It has been remarkably quiet in the last four of five hours."
He said nothing significant came out of the domestic wage data that was released on Wednesday afternoon.
"We saw the dollar reach it's weakest levels just after those numbers came out. I don't think they were particularly FX sensitive."
Traders were now waiting for US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's speech in Washington overnight.
"More broadly we're going to get the message that the Fed still expects to see a moderate recovery continue to evolve."
He said the Fed would not imply that anything would happen soon on interest rates.
Meanwhile, the Australian share market closed sharply lower today after resources heavyweights BHP Billiton Ltd and Rio Tinto Ltd lost ground on softer base metals prices.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 69.8 points, or 1.48 per cent, at 4,648.5 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index shed 65.1 points, or 1.38 per cent, to 4,665.9 points.
On the Sydney Futures Exchange at 4.16pm AEDT, the March share price index futures contract was 74 points lower at 4,644 on volume of 30,803 contracts.
BHP Billiton gave up $1.23, or 2.92 per cent, to $40.88 and Rio Tinto backtracked $2.35, or 3.23 per cent, to $70.40.
Among the major banks, National Australia Bank fell 64 cents to $24.61, Westpac retreated 60 cents to $25.76, ANZ gave up 21 cents to $22.52, and Commonwealth Bank decreased 55 cents to $54.00.
Insurer and regional bank Suncorp-Metway slid 59 cents, or 6.41 per cent, to $8.62 despite increasing first half profit by 41 per cent.
Austock Securities senior client adviser Michael Heffernan said Virgin Blue Holdings delivered a solid result as travellers favoured the budget aviation sector.
Virgin Blue unveiled a return to profitability with a first half net profit of $62.5 million.
Virgin Blue fell one cent to 61 cents.
"Virgin Blue is down but doing better than the broader market," Mr Heffernan said.
"They had a near-death experience last time (results were reported) so it was time for a recovery.
"They are well on the way back."
