The Australian dollar has lost a bit of ground in quiet overnight trade with US markets closed for the Presidents’ Day public holiday.

At 0700 AEDT on Tuesday, the local unit was trading at 90.28 US cents, down from 90.56 cents on Monday.

Since 1700 AEDT on Monday, the Australian dollar has traded between 90.22 and 90.69 US cents.

Bank of New Zealand markets strategist Kymberly Martin said there was very little to give currency traders direction during the offshore session.

“It was a very quiet night, the US market was closed for a public holiday, so it’s quite hard to specifically pinpoint a catalyst in the movement in the Aussie dollar,” she said from Wellington.

“It had a step down earlier in the evening and for the rest of the night it traded in a very tight range.”

On Tuesday, the Reserve Bank of Australia will release the minutes of its February board meeting at which it kept the cash rate unchanged at a record low of 2.5 per cent and said it wouldn’t be changing the cash rate anytime soon.

“There shouldn’t be too many surprises (from the minutes) because since the meeting the quarterly monetary policy statement was issued, which should have covered most of the RBA’s latest thoughts,” Martin said.

The Bank of Japan has its policy meeting on Tuesday and is expected to make a decision on further economic stimulus measures.

Mr Martin said he expects the Australian dollar to trade in a range between 89.90 and 90.70 US cents on Tuesday.

AAP