Reuters reported that the giant Chinese cities of Guangzhou and Chongqing announced an easing of COVID curbs on Wednesday, a day after demonstrators in southern Guangzhou clashed with police amid a string of protests against the world's toughest coronavirus restrictions.

This in part has given a sigh of relief to financial markets midweek and has enabled the Australian Dollar to rally to fresh highs as follows: 

• AUD/USD Price Analysis: Bulls eye 0.6850 while bears look to 0.6650

Meanwhile, China reports 34,942 new local covid cases for November 30 (previous 36,683).

Nevertheless, China’s most senior official in charge of its Covid response told health officials Wednesday that the country faced a “new stage and mission” in pandemic controls, state media Xinhua reported – potentially indicating an adjustment to Beijing’s “zero-Covid” strategy which has sparked days of nationwide protests.

“With the decreasing toxicity of the Omicron variant, the increasing vaccination rate and the accumulating experience of outbreak control and prevention, China’s pandemic containment faces new stage and mission,” Sun Chunlan, China’s vice premier, said Wednesday, according to Xinhua.