The Australian dollar is higher after disappointing US durable goods data dampened hopes that the Federal Reserve will begin tapering its economic stimulus soon.

At 0700 AEST on Friday, the local unit was trading at 92.47 US cents, up from 91.62 cents on Thursday.

Orders for big-ticket US manufactured goods rose 4.2 per cent in June, which was higher than expected, but the increase was driven by transportation equipment orders, a typically volatile item.

BK Asset Management New York MD Boris Schlossberg said the Australian dollar was up strictly because the US dollar was down on the release of the figures.

“What we’ve seen in the latest US data is a whole bunch of misses,” Schlossberg said.

“Durable goods today were disappointing, retail sales last week were a disappointment and all of that is just suggesting that the second-quarter in the US is going to be slower than the market expected.

“As a result, that’s going to give very little reason for the Fed to want to taper sooner rather than later and the US dollar is completely losing its momentum because of this.

“There was, basically, a massive anti-US dollar rally at the end of the day in the North American session and the Aussie was just a direct beneficiary of that.”