Investing.com - The Australian dollar continued cascading lower against its U.S. rival during Wednesday’s Asian, flirting with its lowest levels against the greenback in more than a year-and-a-half.
In Asian trading Wednesday, AUD/USD plunged 0.59% to 0.9561, taking the pair below support at 0.9594, the low of May 23 and an 11-month low. Resistance can be found at 0.9708, the high of May 24.
While some traders have recently speculated about what is causing the Aussie’s woes, a legitimately strong greenback or underlying fundamental weakness in the Aussie, it is a strong U.S. dollar that has been doing the Aussie in over the past 24 hours.
In U.S. economic news out Tuesday, the Case-Shiller index of home prices in 20 major metro U.S. areas rose 10.9% in March while the 10-city index rose 10.3%. All 20 cities posted year-over-year growth with Phoenix, San Francisco and Las Vegas leading the way.
The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index increased to 76.2 this month, good for the best reading since May 2008. Analysts expected a reading of 72.5. The April reading was 69.
"Consumers’ assessment of current business and labor-market conditions was more positive and they were considerably more upbeat about future economic and job prospects," Lynn Franco, director of economic indicators at the Conference Board, said in a statement.
Those strong data points helped hasten the Aussie declines, taking it to its lowest level since October 2011. In the past day, the Aussie has been the worst performing currency in the world.
The Aussie is now locked in a battle for the dubious of honor of world’s worst-performing with the Syrian pound.
Elsewhere, AUD/JPY shed 0.72% to 97.72 while EUR/AUD rose 0.53% to 1.3442. AUD/NZD fell 0.33% to 1.1865.
In Asian trading Wednesday, AUD/USD plunged 0.59% to 0.9561, taking the pair below support at 0.9594, the low of May 23 and an 11-month low. Resistance can be found at 0.9708, the high of May 24.
While some traders have recently speculated about what is causing the Aussie’s woes, a legitimately strong greenback or underlying fundamental weakness in the Aussie, it is a strong U.S. dollar that has been doing the Aussie in over the past 24 hours.
In U.S. economic news out Tuesday, the Case-Shiller index of home prices in 20 major metro U.S. areas rose 10.9% in March while the 10-city index rose 10.3%. All 20 cities posted year-over-year growth with Phoenix, San Francisco and Las Vegas leading the way.
The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index increased to 76.2 this month, good for the best reading since May 2008. Analysts expected a reading of 72.5. The April reading was 69.
"Consumers’ assessment of current business and labor-market conditions was more positive and they were considerably more upbeat about future economic and job prospects," Lynn Franco, director of economic indicators at the Conference Board, said in a statement.
Those strong data points helped hasten the Aussie declines, taking it to its lowest level since October 2011. In the past day, the Aussie has been the worst performing currency in the world.
The Aussie is now locked in a battle for the dubious of honor of world’s worst-performing with the Syrian pound.
Elsewhere, AUD/JPY shed 0.72% to 97.72 while EUR/AUD rose 0.53% to 1.3442. AUD/NZD fell 0.33% to 1.1865.