UPDATE: THE Australian dollar closed higher today as the US dollar weakened amid positive sentiment on equity markets.
At 5pm AEST today, the Australian dollar was trading at US89.99c, up from yesterday's close of US89.39c.
Since 7am AEST, the local currency traded between US89.47c and US90.24c.
4Cast financial markets head of research Ray Attrill said the local unit moved steadily higher after dipping on the release of minutes from the Reserve Bank of Australia's August 3 board meeting.
"The tone seems to have been a little bit brighter through the Asia Pacific time zone really," he said.
"But it's hard to pin down reasons for it really.
"It just seems to be symptomatic of a slightly weaker US dollar and the euro/dollar has actually come down a bit as Europe's got going."
Economists say the RBA is "comfortable" leaving interest rates at average levels in the short-term, but will move towards tightening in the future.
Mr Attrill said the release of the minutes of the RBA's August meeting came and went without any great fanfare.
"There was a little bit of weakness in the Aussie with relief rally when they confirmed the view that the market took out of the statement at the beginning of the month ... that the RBA looks to be pretty comfortably on hold," he said.
"That seemed to have a little bit of a short term negative impact on the Aussie dollar, but it hasn't really gone very far."
