The Australian dollar hits a five-week high, ASX 200 ends its week with strong gains

The Australian dollar hits a five-week high, Donald Trump considers a trade deal with China and the ASX 200 ends its week with strong gains.

Transcript

00:00Well, it's been an emotionally charged week for the Aussie dollar, which had a pretty

00:05big jump ahead of Donald Trump's inauguration, because people thought he was going to tone

00:10down his rhetoric about trade wars.

00:13But it didn't take long for them to be proved wrong, and the currency fell.

00:17That's after the president effectively said, no such luck, especially against Mexico and

00:22Canada.

00:23Then it rose again, as he threatened China and Europe with tariffs, but without giving

00:27too much detail.

00:29And now, apparently things are good again, because Trump said his last conversation with

00:33Chinese President Xi Jinping was a friendly one, and it might be possible for them to

00:38reach a trade deal.

00:40So that sent the Aussie dollar flying above 63 US cents, its highest level in five weeks.

00:45And it briefly fell below 98 yen, after the Bank of Japan lifted interest rates to 0.5%,

00:53the highest it's been since the global financial crisis.

00:56Meanwhile, the share market went up slightly, by 0.3%, with discretionary retailers like

01:02Premier Investments among today's best performers.

01:05Kogan, however, absolutely tanked, despite reporting its half-year sales jumped 10%.

01:11But apparently, that wasn't good enough.

01:13Overseas, Wall Street hit a new record high, while Chinese markets really took off, after

01:18Trump talked about his friendly chat with Xi.

01:22In commodities, oil fell, iron ore was steady, and the Australian gold price is hovering

01:26below its record high.