$A lower despite Fed announcement August 1, 2013 - 7:38AM The Australian dollar is slightly lower after good US economic data and a Federal Reserve announcement pulled the currency in opposite directions. At 0700 AEST on Thursday, the local unit was trading at 89.82 US cents, down from 90.16 cents on Wednesday. Late on Wednesday night, it fell as low as 89.35 US cents, its weakest level since September 2010. The Australian dollar lost ground early in the overnight session when the US Commerce Department reported that the American economy grew 1.7 per cent in the June quarter, above the 1.1 per cent expected by analysts. A few hours later, the local currency recovered most of its losses after the US Federal Reserve said it would keep going with its economic stimulus plan. The market had been expecting the central bank to start winding down its $US85 billion-a-month bond-purchase program in September. The Fed didn't say a whole lot last night. They were fairly low key," LTG Goldrock director Andrew Barnett said. The market didn't quite know how to take it. Mr Barnett said he expected the Australian dollar to stay on a downward trend as long as it appeared likely the Reserve Bank of Australia would keep reducing the cash rate. "The Aussie dollar continues to get pummelled because the market is convinced we're going to get an interest rate cut on August 6," he said. The RBA's cash rate currently is at a record low of 2.75 per cent and the futures market is pricing in a 96 per cent chance it will be cut to 2.5 per cent on Tuesday.