The Australian dollar slipped on Tuesday, as the spectre of Libya weighed on markets while currency traders awaited official local jobs figures.
At the local close, the dollar was trading at 101.16 US cents, down from Monday’s local close of 101.27 US cents.Commonwealth Bank currency strategist Joe Capurso said there was little action on the local currency market with no market moving data released during the trading day.
He said traders were awaiting official national employment data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Thursday.
‘‘Probably there’s a little bit of holding back until the jobs data and some guidance on Libya,’’ he said.
Australia’s unemployment rate is expected to remain steady at 5.0 per cent in February, unchanged from the previous month’s result, the median of 11 economists surveyed by AAP shows.
Thursday’s ABS figures are also expected to show total employment rose by 20,000, while the participation rate is expected to remain at 65.9 per cent.
On the global stage, international pressure is mounting against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who has been violently suppressing protests against his rule for about a month.
US President Barack Obama warned on Tuesday the US and its NATO allies were still considering military options to stop what he called ‘‘unacceptable’’ violence by Gaddafi’s regime.
NATO decided to boost the number of surveillance planes over Libya from 10 to 24 hours a day, the US Ambassador to NATO Ivo Daalder said.
Before the upheaval, Libya produced around 2 per cent of the world’s oil.
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