Investing.com - The Australian dollar declined against its U.S. counterpart on Monday, after mixed economic reports from Australia, as Friday's upbeat U.S. growth data continued to support demand for the greenback.
AUD/USD hit 0.7762 during late Asian trade, the pair's lowest since February 24; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.7774, sliding 0.43%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.7720, the low of February 13 and resistance at 0.7836, the high of February 24.
In a report, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said that company operating profits fell 0.2% in the fourth quarter of 2014, compared to expectations for a 0.3% rise. The third quarter's figure was revised to a 0.4% decline from a previously estimated 0.5% increase.
A separate report showed that Australia's new home sales increased by 1.8% in January, after a 1.9% slide the previous month.
In addition, the Melbourne Institute said that its inflation gauge was flat in February after a 0.1% uptick in January.
Meanwhile, the greenback remained supported after the Commerce Department reported on Friday that U.S. gross domestic product grew at an annual rate of 2.2% in the last three months of 2014, down from an initial estimate of 2.6% but ahead of expectations for a downward revision to 2.1% growth.
The U.S. currency was also boosted after the February reading of the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index was revised up to 95.4 from the preliminary reading of 93.6. While this was down from the previous months final reading of 98.1, it was still the second highest level since January 2007.
The Aussie was lower against the euro, with EUR/AUD shedding 0.28% to 1.4372.
Later in the day, the Institute of Supply Management was to report on U.S. manufacturing activity.