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.
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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.