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SYDNEY, March 1 Asia Pulse - The Australian dollar opened steady against its US counterpart as focus remained on the stock markets and, last night, the US Federal Reserve chairman reassured investors that the economy was due to grow moderately.
At 0700 AEDT, the domestic unit was at $US0.7876/81, virtually steady with yesterday's close of 0.7874/79.
The local currency traded between a low of $US0.7856 and a high of 0.7894.
Most Asian currencies came under pressure following a meltdown in global equity markets yesterday, with the the biggest one day fall for the all ordinaries and S&P/ASX200 indices since September 17, 2001.
ICAP's chief economist, Michael Thomas, said focus was completely on stock markets and Treasury markets were just profit taking.
Fed boss Ben Bernanke testified before the US's House Budget Committee, said there did not seem to be any single trigger for the drop in the market, but reassured investors by saying that markets "seem to be working well."
Mr Thomas said the three lots of weaker US data should have pulled the US dollar lower and US bond yields lower, but the opposite happened.
Source: HighBeam Research, FOREX - AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR OPENS FLAT - MARCH 1, 2007.