Shortly after 1pm AEST, the Aussie was buying 65.60 US cents, its best performance against the dollar since November 24 last year.

It has since slightly decreased to about 65.44 cents as of 4pm, approximately the same as its value at the market’s close yesterday, but still significantly higher than at the beginning of the year.

“I know within three or four people who I’m going to pick,” he stated, mentioning that Powell’s term is up “pretty soon fortunately, because I think he’s terrible.”

This caused the greenback to reach a more than three-year low on Thursday (US time). The US dollar index, which gauges the dollar’s strength against six major foreign currencies, fell to its weakest level since February 2022.

Francesco Pesole, a strategist at ING, said that concerns about the Fed’s independence have been one of the contributing factors to the dollar’s broad decline this year.

“One of the key foundations of the strong dollar, of the dollar as a dominant currency globally, is to have an independent central bank,” Pesole told CNN.

“So, if (global investors) feel there is greater influence of politics into the Fed’s decisions, then they are pricing in a greater risk for the dollar.”

– With CNN, Associated Press