$A drifting higher on $US weakness THE Australian dollar drifted higher during the local session, helped by a weaker US counterpart and the central bank's decision to keep the cash rate on hold. At 1700 AEDT on Tuesday, the local currency was trading at 104.61 US cents, up from 104.23 cents on Thursday, before the four-day Easter break. Easy Forex currency trader Tony Darvall said the Australian dollar dropped back below 104 US cents over the Easter weekend but found support from buyers. He said the currency spent Tuesday drifting higher, due in part to weakness in the US dollar. It reached a high of 104.80 US cents following the Reserve Bank of Australia's decision to keep the cash rate on hold at three per cent for April. Mr Darvall said the RBA left the door open to the possibility of further rate cuts but that the tone of its statement appeared to be relatively bullish, which boosted demand for the Australian dollar. "Aside from that, everything was pretty bullish so, given the market was pretty strong anyway, it helped it to test those higher levels," he said. Mr Darvall said he expected the Australian dollar to trade between 103.50 and 105.50 US cents during the week. He said key events would include the release of Australian retail sales figures for February on Thursday and US non-farm payrolls figures on Friday. At 1700 AEDT the Australian dollar was trading at 97.05 Japanese yen, down from 98.10 yen on Thursday, and at 81.38 euro cents, down from 81.48 euro cents. Meanwhile, Australian bond futures were mixed following the RBA decision. At 1630 AEDT on Tuesday, the June 10-year bond futures contract was trading at 96.590 (implying a yield of 3.410 per cent), up from Thursday's local close of 96.570 (3.430 per cent). The June three-year bond futures contract was at 97.110 (2.890 per cent), compared with 97.130 (2.870 per cent) previously.