Gold Prices Fall Amid Rate Jitters; Copper Steady as China Stimulus Eyed 
The Australian dollar shifted down a gear on Wednesday morning in Sydney after Westpac Bank hiked mortgage rates in an effort to meet new regulatory capital requirements, prompting fresh calls for the RBA to lower rates in November.
A 0.20% hike across all Westpac mortgage rates on Wednesday immediately raised suspicion that the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) would need to counter Westpac's effective tightening by loosening monetary policy, possibly as soon as next month.
The AUD/USD pair was down 0.43% at $0.7198 on Wednesday morning in Sydney from $0.7246 where the pair closed in New York on Tuesday just hours earlier.
Westpac's rate hike comes after the Australian Regulatory Prudential Authority (APRA) tightened capital criteria, forcing Australian banks to hold more capital to cover mortgage defaults in the event that the housing market suffers a downturn.
