Forex Pros – The Australian dollar rallied for the eight consecutive day against its U.S. counterpart on Monday, rising to a fresh all-time high as Australian insurers continued to buy the local currency for insurance payments to pay for damage caused by severe floods in Queensland.
AUD/USD hit 1.0313 during European morning trade, the pair’s all-time high; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.0288, climbing 0.25%.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.0185, Friday’s low and resistance at 1.0320.
The Aussie was boosted by talk of heavy demand from insurers as the nation’s insurance sector faced substantial claims after devastating floods in Queensland at the start of the year.
Mergers and acquisitions talk also helped the Aussie higher. French insurer AXA was in talks to acquire the Asian operations of wealth manager AXA Asia Pacific Holdings by April 1 in a deal valued at nearly AUD9.8 billion.
Meanwhile, rumors that mining giant BHP Billiton was buying Australian dollars to expand its AUD5 billion share buyback program also boosted the Aussie.
Elsewhere, the Aussie was also up against the euro, with EUR/AUD slumping 0.44% to hit 1.3671.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to release industry data on pending home sales as well as official data on personal spending, personal income and personal consumption expenditures.
ForexPros.com
