The Australian dollar fluctuated lower against USD during the Asian session, witnessing its bounce for the second straight session off its highest since the start of May, ahead of an economic data release today by the US economy, including Federal Reserve Governor, Jerome Powell's speech in Washington.
As of 02:35 GMT, AUD/USD fell 0.021% to $0.6973 compared with the opening at $0.6988, after reaching a high of $0.6995 and a low of $0.6967.
Federal Reserve Governor, Jerome Powell, is expected to give the opening speech at the Federal Reserve Community Development Research Conference, in conjunction with the release of the Producer Price Index (PPI) reading, which is considered as a preliminary index of inflationary pressures that could reflect a slowing growth to 0.2% versus 0.6%, while the annual reading of the same index may show an accelerated growth to 2.3% versus 2.2%.
In the same context, the core reading of the PPI may reflect a slowdown in growth to 0.2% from 0.3% in March, while the annual core reading of the same index may show an accelerated growth to 2.5% versus 2.4%, in conjunction with the release of Jobless claims index, which may show a decline of 15 thousand applications to 215 thousand applications during the week ending on May 4th.
This is also in conjunction with the release of the trade balance reading, which may reflect a widening deficit to $51.4 billion versus $49.4 billion in February. This comes before we witness the final reading of the Wholesale Inventories Index, which may show stability at zero levels, unchanged from March's preliminary reading and vs 0.2% in February.