Investing.com - The Australian dollar was almost unchanged against its U.S. counterpart on Tuesday, after the release of disappointing data from Australia and as traders continued to lock in profits from the greenback's recent rally.
AUD/USD hit 0.7061 during late Asian trade, the session high; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.7050.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.6999, the low of October 2 and resistance at 0.7171, the high of November 6.
The National Australia Bank reported on Tuesday that its business confindence index fell to 2 in October from 5 the previous month. Analysts had expected the index to tick down to 3 last month.
Meanwhile, the greenback remained broadly supported after the Labor Department reported on Friday that the U.S. economy added 271,000 jobs last month, well ahead of expectations of the 180,000 expected by economists and the largest increase since December.
The unemployment rate fell to a seven-and-a-half year low of 5.0%.
The strong data paved the way for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates at its December meeting, a move that would make the dollar more attractive to yield-seeking investors.
The Aussie was steady against the euro, with EUR/AUD at 1.5250.