Australian dollar closes higher

SYDNEY - The Australian dollar closed higher on Friday, with the local currency consolidating near US$0.8000 after a week of strong gains.

At 1700 AEST, the Australian dollar was trading at US$0.7996/99, up from Thursday's close of US$0.7964/69.

During the day, the unit moved between US$0.7986 and US$0.8064, the latter reached at the start of the local session at 0700 AEST.

The Australian dollar touched US$0.8070 late in offshore trade, rising in line with a positive day on Wall Street and a better than forecast profit result from US bank JP Morgan Chase and Co.

The rally faltered during the Asian trading day, as the Australian dollar moved back towards the US$0.8000 level.

CMC Markets foreign exchange dealer Tim Waterer said traders were adjusting their portfolios after a series of positive US corporate earnings so far this week.

"There was some profit-taking, a little bit of repositioning and some money taken off the table just awaiting further results tonight," Mr Waterer said.

"Traders don't want to get too far ahead of themselves.

"The last thing they want to do is to buy it all the way up to 81 to 82 US cents only to have numbers start to disappoint."

Despite the slide on Friday, the local currency has had a strong week after snapping a four-trading day losing run on Tuesday.

The Australian dollar has appreciated about 3.5 per cent against the US dollar and 4.9 per cent against the Japanese yen from its closing level on Monday.

"The Australian dollar has been in something of a purple patch lately, thanks to the upbeat results stemming from the US of late," Mr Waterer said.

"It's certainly a pretty prosperous week by most measures.

"It hasn't built on it during the Asian session, but that would probably be asking a bit too much."

US companies scheduled to unveil their second quarter earnings during Friday night's (AEST) offshore session include General Electric Co, Bank of America Corp and Citigroup Inc.

"I think it will be fairly tight ranges until we see some numbers printed out from those reports," Mr Waterer said.

US economic data slated for publication includes housing starts for June.

CURRENCY TABLE:
Snapshot at 1700 AEST

CURRENCY SPOT PREVIOUS CLOSE

AUD/USD 0.7996-99 0.7964-69

AUD/JPY 74.85-90 74.76-80

AUD/EUR 0.5672-80 0.5660-67

AUD/NZD 1.2408-16 1.2456-63

AUD/GBP 0.4893-00 0.4862-68

EUR/USD 1.4088-90 1.4063-65

USD/JPY 93.63-64 93.88-90

EUR/JPY 131.91-96 132.03-06

At 1600 AEST, the Reserve Bank of Australia's trade weighted index (TWI) was at 63.7, up from Thursday's close of 63.6.

- AAP