Australian dollar drops below 75 US cents
Posted
The Australian dollar has fallen below 75 US cents for the first time since October 2006.
Today it dropped as low as 74.46 US cents.
At 4:00pm AEDT, the ASX 200 had dropped 3.3 per cent to 4,540.
The All Ordinaries index had fallen 157 points to 4,546.
Financial analyst Peter Switzer says investor sentiment has been hit by the latest round of turmoil in Europe, but it may be boosted by a rate cut tomorrow.
"Well, I'm expecting to see the 0.5 per cent cut," he said.
"I'm expecting to see the Americans cut interest rates before their official meeting and that will be an important test point to see whether the stock market requires a bit of extra help from the central banks.
"I'm hoping that happens and I'm hoping we get a positive result by the end of the week."
