$A higher as 2013 comes to a close December 31, 2013 - 12:34PM The Australian dollar has bounced back above 89 US cents and is expected to trade within a narrow range as markets wind down for the New Year break. At 1200 AEDT on Tuesday, the local unit was trading at 89.14 US cents, up from 88.50 cents on Monday. There had been some attempts to push the Australian dollar lower this week but the currency had remained resilient, trading within its well-defined ranges, Westpac chief currency strategist Robert Rennie said. "It's approaching the very final stages of 2013 and I think the themes we had through the year are still very much in place," Mr Rennie said. The US dollar continues to do relatively well, the Aussie, in that environment, struggles and we find ourselves close to the 89 US cent level. We might see some strength in the Aussie over the next few days because the market is long on US dollars and short Aussie dollars, so I wouldn't be surprised to see a bit of a pop up to 89.50 US cents. The Australian bond market was also stronger. At 1200 AEDT on Tuesday, the March 10-year bond futures contract was trading at 95.800 (implying a yield of 4.200 per cent), up from 95.770 (4.230 per cent) on Monday. The March three-year bond futures contract was at 96.990 (3.010 per cent), up from 96.960 (3.040 per cent).