$A lower amid US Fed tapering speculation The Australian dollar is lower as speculation continues about when the US Federal Reserve will begin tapering its economic stimulus program. At 1700 AEDT on Thursday, the local unit was trading at 94.92 US cents, down from 94.96 cents on Wednesday. The Australian dollar rose to an intra-day high of 95.08 US cents after building approvals data came in stronger than expected, but shed those gains later in the afternoon. Approvals for the construction of new homes rose 14.4 per cent across Australia in September, seasonally adjusted - five times higher than economists' expectations of a 2.8 per cent rise. The local currency has been trading lower throughout the week ahead of Thursday morning's decision from the Federal Open Market Committee, which decided to leave its economic stimulus program in place. But uncertainty over when tapering will happen is still weighing on the Aussie dollar, BlackRock head of Australian fixed income Steve Miller said. "I think what happened after September was that markets convinced themselves that tapering wasn't going to happen until March," Mr Miller said. What was interesting about the Fed communication overnight was that they kept all options open, keeping people wondering whether they're being premature in ruling out tapering in December. With December still on the table, markets are contemplating whether they've pushed US bond yields too low (prices high) and the US dollar too low. At 1700 AEDT, the Australian dollar was at 93.29 Japanese yen, up from Wednesday's close of 93.23 yen, and at 69.29 euro cents, up from 69.10 euro cents. Bond futures prices were also lower on the tapering uncertainty, as well as the strong building approvals data, Mr Miller said. At 1630 AEDT on Thursday, the December 10-year bond futures contract was trading at 96.015 (implying a yield of 3.985 per cent), down from 96.065 (3.935 per cent) on Wednesday. The December three-year bond futures contract was at 96.960 (3.040 per cent), down from 97.030 (2.970 per cent).