The Australian dollar neared 70 U.S. cents Thursday in an early market reading while crude prices climbed later amid Middle East supply concerns and a reported drone interception in Saudi Arabia.
FXStreet put AUD/USD at about 0.7000, down 0.4%, at 7:35:59 a.m. ET (11:35:59 UTC) on Oct. 22. Its analysis pointed to investor caution around oil and a recovering U.S. dollar as pressures on the Australian currency.
Investing.com's Oct. 22 daily record listed AUD/USD at 0.7015, down 0.20%, and showed a low of 0.6994.
At 1:05 p.m. ET (17:05 UTC), Brent crude was at $112.33 a barrel, up $3.51, or 3.2%. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was at $99.29, up $2.14, or 2.2%, Reuters reported. Reuters also cited Houthi attacks as a source of supply worries in oil markets.
Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Energy said an aircraft had been headed toward a facility at Saudi Aramco's Shaybah oil field when defenses intercepted it on the morning of Oct. 21. Debris from the interception killed two residents, a Filipino and a Nepali, and injured two others, a Pakistani and an Indian, the ministry said. Separately, it said fragments ignited a contractor's vehicle beyond the facility boundary; operations at the field continued without disruption.
The ministry did not name a group behind the drone. Reuters separately reported that Iran-aligned Houthis had claimed earlier attacks that included Shaybah; its account concerned earlier incidents, not the Oct. 21 interception.
FXStreet identified Friday's October flash purchasing managers' index (PMI) releases for Australia and the United States as the next scheduled data for AUD/USD. The outlet described the reports as a potential catalyst for the currency pair.
