By Candice Zachariahs April 16 (Bloomberg) -- The Australian dollar may gain toward its 2008 record in the next six weeks should it break above so-called resistance near 94 U.S. cents, JPMorgan Chase & Co. said, citing trading patterns. The Aussie reached 94.06 cents on Nov. 16, the most since August 2008. It climbed to 98.50 cents on July 15, 2008, the strongest since it began trading freely in 1983. The currency will initially target so-called channel resistance at 95.50 cents, which has “contained the rally” from the February low, said Niall O’Connor, a technical analyst in New York. “A break would suggest that we’re probably looking at targets ranging between 95 and 95.50 initially,” he said in an interview from New York. “The next big target would be the 2008 high at 98.50 and I think we could get closer to that. I have a target of around 97 cents before that.” Australia’s currency traded at 93.38 U.S. cents as of 9:57 a.m. in Sydney and has gained 8.8 percent from this year’s low of 85.79 cents reached on Feb. 5. “There’s a good chance that we could pull back initially, assuming we take out the November high, from that 95 to 95.50 area,” said O’Connor. “We could correct for a week or two and from there the market’s probably in a better set-up to extend the rally” toward 98.50 cents, he said. A resistance level is an area on a chart where technical analysts anticipate orders to sell a currency and its related instruments. The stronger the resistance, the more buying is needed to advance through that level. In technical analysis, investors and analysts study charts of trading patterns and prices to forecast changes in a security, commodity, currency or index. To contact the reporter on this story: Candice Zachariahs in Sydney at czachariahs2@bloomberg.net

Source