The Australian dollar has fallen after US stocks lost ground following a weak Spanish bond auction.

At 0700 AEST on Thursday, the local unit was trading at 102.70 US cents, down from 102.82 cents on Wednesday.

On Wednesday night, Australian time, the Spanish government only achieved the bottom end of its target with the sale of nearly 2.6 billion euros ($A3.35 billion) worth of bonds at auction.

It also was forced to pay higher rates amid concerns over its ballooning public debt.

Westpac New Zealand senior market strategist Imre Speizer said the Australian dollar held up well despite the overall market negativity.

Most of the major markets in the world lost ground, US equities were down one per cent, and commodities also fell heavily.

“The reason why the Aussie dollar and the Kiwi dollar didn’t fall a lot is that the Aussie has suffered quite a bit of selling in the last few days,” Mr Speizer said from Auckland.

“So, I think it’s approaching selling fatigue on the day.

“I’m thinking you might get a little bounce (in the next couple days). Something between 103.00 US cents and 103.50 cent should be the extent of it.”

Mr Speizer said he expected the Australian dollar to head down towards parity with the greenback over the coming weeks.

“It broke some key levels over the past two days and it looks like it will head lower in the weeks ahead,” he said.

“The US dollar is strong and the reason for that is you’ve got risk aversion creeping back in again, you’ve got slower growth in China now.”

The market will now focus on the release of official US employment data for March on the Good Friday public holiday (Australian time).

The median market forecast for March is for US employment growth of more than 200,000 jobs for a fourth straight month.

Mr Speizer said he expected the Australian dollar to trade in a range between 102.44 US cents and 103.00 cents on Thursday.