$A higher on Wall St records Wall street and Europe hit record highs as the trading week begins. Commsec Report. The Australian dollar is slightly higher, but has failed to make any significant gains despite US stocks rising to a new all-time record at the end of last week. At 0700 AEST on Monday, the local unit was trading at 97.59 US cents, up from 97.37 cents on Friday. Late on Friday night, the currency fell as low as 97.11 US cents, its weakest level since early June 2012. The US dollar continued to rally at the end of last week, passing 103.00 Japanese yen for the first time since 2008. Both the Dow Jones Index and the S&P 500 closed at fresh all-time highs, gaining almost one per cent. The gains on Wall Street came after its was reported the University of Michigan consumer sentiment index rose to its highest level since 2007 in May. Westpac New Zealand senior market strategist Imre Speizer said the Australian dollar was weighed down by the strong US dollar. "The Australian dollar fell going into the New York session then went sideways," he said from Auckland. The strength in US dollar continued. There are plenty of buyers for the US dollar. There was no obvious catalysts on Friday night. The data was better but the US dollar had risen by then. Mr Speizer said the next big focus for markets would be the release of the minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia's May board meeting at which it cut the cash rate to a record low of 2.7 per cent, surprising the market. He said he expected the Australian dollar to trade in a range between 97.20 and 97.80 cents on Monday.