Australian dollar loses ground

The Australian dollar weakened Friday on declines in US and Australian equities markets and ahead of a report due next week which is expected to show that Australian unemployment was up in February.

Analysts expect the report to say that 20,000 more people were unemployed in Australia in February and that the unemployment rate grew to 5 percent in the month.

At just past 11 a.m. in New York, the Australian dollar was worth 63.95 cents US as the yen traded at ¥62.6207 to the Aussie.

The Reserve Bank of Australia kept interest rates steady this week, but the Reserve Bank of New Zealand is expected to cut rates next week, perhaps to as low as 2.75 percent from the current rate of 3.5 percent.

The New Zealand dollar was worth 50.26 cents in morning trade in New York, while the yen traded at ¥49.1958 to the kiwi.

The Japanese yen and the US dollar both weakened on the session after the US Labor Department said that the US economy lost 651,000 jobs in February, fewer than were eliminated in January and about the number expected by analysts.

The US unemployment rate grew to 8.1 percent in February, the highest in over 25 years.

In late morning trade in New York the dollar dropped to $1.2641 in relation to the euro while the yen traded at ¥123.777 to the euro and at ¥97.92 to the greenback.

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