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Australian dollar slides

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The Australian dollar dropped to a more than two-year low overnight, while Wall Street is expected to weigh on the local market amid lingering trade concerns, with Facebook and Nike shares dragging the major indexes.

In futures trading, the SPI200 futures contract was down 18 points, or 0.29 per cent, to 6,262 points at 0800 AEST, pointing to a lower open for the Australian stock market on Wednesday.

The Australian dollar fell to a 27-month low of US$71.57 overnight after earlier climbing above 72 cents , following Tuesday’s decision by the Reserve Bank to maintain the cash rate. Nickel and copper also felt the pressure of the US dollar to drop by as much as 2.5 per cent. Locally, investors are awaiting the release second quarter GDP data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics later on Wednesday morning.

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