Australian dollar continues slow slide against greenback

The Australian dollar continued its slow slide down against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday as the markets hold their breath ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's address to congress at 1300 local time AEDT.

At the Asian open, one Australian dollar bought 76.72 U.S. cents, down from the 76.86 cents it was trading on Thursday.

Joseph Capurso, currency strategist at the Commonwealth Bank, said although the markets accept Trump may not go into to many details in his planned speech, the effects could be wide reaching.

"The U.S. dollar should not show a lot of reaction to the speech but an adverse reaction is the risk if Trump disappoints by providing few tax plan details," Capurso said.

"As the latest push-back from Republicans overnight showed, many of the new administration's plans are still considered a non-starter' by some in their own party,"

"Whatever tax plan is ultimately released, the U.S. dollar could react very differently depending on whether a plain vanilla' company tax cut is announced (U.S. dollar up) or a border-adjustment tax (U.S. dollar risk is down if U.S. economic activity is disrupted)."

At 0848 local time AEDT, one Australian dollar buys 76.58 U.S. cents. Endit