THE dollar was weaker at noon after profit-taking dragged the unit back from the brink of parity with the US dollar.
The unit touched a fresh 27-year high of 99.94 US cents overnight, the closest the unit has been to parity with the US dollar since it was floated on foreign exchange markets on December 8, 1983.
At 12pm (AEDT) today, the "Aussie" was trading at 99.13 US cents, down from yesterday's local close of 99.61 US cents.
Since 7am (AEDT), the unit traded between 99.40 US cents and 98.92 cents
Tallship Investments currency strategist Michael Katz said the unit was dragged lower after investors bailed from the unit as it inched towards parity.
"I'd say people had orders to sell just in front of parity," Mr Katz said.
"99 US cents shouldn't be an important level, but obviously there's a lot of market sentiment about parity."
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Thursday night's offshore trade was bumpy for the Aussie. US shares closed lower after poor US jobless data sapped risk appetite and sent investors in search of safe haven assets.
New claims for US unemployment benefits rose by 13,000 last week, more than experts had expected, government data showed overnight.
At the moment, poor US data is being treated as adding to the case for quantitative easing, a process whereby the US Federal Reserve increases the amount of US dollars in the economy by buying US treasuries.
In that environment, the dollar could touch one US dollar.
During the offshore session on Friday night, Fed chairman Ben Bernanke is due to deliver a speech on "Monetary Policy Objectives and Tools in a Low-Inflation Environment".
Analysts and economists have been pawing the earth in anticipation of the speech, which Mr Katz said could give the market answers on quantitative easing.
In a busy night of US data, market observers also await retail sales for September and the Empire state manufacturing survey.
Sales are expected to have grown 0.5 per cent, while manufacturing is expected to show a moderate pick up.
Also due is the official measure of US inflation for September, which is expected to show a monthly increase in prices of 0.2 per cent.
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