The Australian dollar is one US cent weaker as traders pile back into the greenback.

At 0700 AEDT on Friday, the Australian dollar was worth 76.28 US cents, down from 77.30 US cents, on Thursday.

The greenback was heavily sold on Thursday, giving the Australian dollar its biggest one day rise in almost two years to levels above 78 US cents, after the US Federal Reserve signalled it was in no hurry to raise rates.

But the Australian dollar’s surge began to be unwind on Thursday night, with no data to support the abrupt recovery in the US dollar, Westpac senior market strategist, Imre Speizer said.

“It’s not a rational response,” he said.

“I’ll put it down as the puzzling recovery of the reaction and I wouldn’t rule out that the US dollar still may come under downward pressure.”

While the Fed’s Federal Open Market Committee removed the word “patient” from its statement, the central bank’s chair Janet Yellen said that didn’t mean policymakers would be impatient when it came to move on the funds rate.

Still, Speizer said, the greenback recovered as traders took the view that US rates would still rise.

“There was a sudden awareness that: `Gee, rate hikes are coming, it’s just a question of timing’,” he said.