In early Asian trading on Tuesday, the AUD/USD lost momentum and was below the mid-range of 0.6500. The Reserve Bank of Australia will publish the minutes of its February monetary policy meeting later in the day. AUD/USD is currently trading around 0.6532, with an intraday decline of 0.12%.
Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Bullock said all options are still under discussion when it comes to monetary policy decisions. However, the central bank needs to ensure that monetary policy does not waste all previous efforts on inflation and thereby fail to achieve its inflation target. Analysts at Deutsche Bank said earlier this month they expected the Reserve Bank of Australia to cut interest rates as early as May. However, most analysts still expect the Reserve Bank of Australia to ease monetary policy between June and December.
In terms of the U.S. dollar, the Federal Reserve (Fed) took a more dovish stance in December, and the market has now formed expectations of a rate cut by the Fed before the summer. Investors will get more clues from the minutes of the January Federal Reserve meeting, which will focus on discussions about the timing of a rate cut. Markets expect the Fed to cut interest rates by 25 basis points (bps) as early as June in 2024, according to the CME FedWatch tool.