THE dollar was lower at noon, losing yesterday's gains under the pressure of waning commodity prices and some frank comments from Japan's foreign minister.
At 12:00 AEDT, the dollar was trading at $US0.9176/79, down from yesterday's close of $US0.9208/10.
Since 07:00 AEDT, the local unit traded between $US0.9184 and $US0.9165.
The domestic currency gave up some ground to the US dollar after Japanese Finance Minister Naoto Kan said in his inaugural press conference in Tokyo that he would like the yen to weaken a bit more after its nine per cent drop from a 14-year high in November.
That caused a rush to buy US dollars and diverted investor attention from the risk sensitive dollar, CMC markets foreign exchange dealer Tim Waterer said.
"The Aussie dollar was a little weaker overnight off the back of the US dollar's gun support after those comments from Japan,'' he said.
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"The main event today has been quite a bit of selling in the gold price, down $US5 in Asian trading so far.
"That's what's been keeping a lid on the Aussie.
Mr Waterer said the unit would continue to trade in a tight range until the release of US non-farm payrolls during Friday's offshore session.
US non-farm payrolls fell by 11,000 in November, the smallest amount of job losses since the start of the US recession in December 2007, the US Department of Labor said last month.
"The trend today is one of fairly cautious trading in anticipation of those numbers tonight, Mr Waterer said.
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