Investing.com - The Australian dollar declined against its U.S. counterpart on Thursday, weighed by downbeat private capital expenditure data, while remarks by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen continued to weigh on the greenback.
AUD/USD hit 0.7844 during late Asian trade, the session low; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.7863, sliding 0.30%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.7739, the low of February 24 and resistance at 0.7979, the high of January 27.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics earlier reported that private capital expenditure fell 2.2% in the fourth quarter of 2014, exceeding expectations for a 1.9% decline.
The change in private capital expenditure for the third quarter was revised to a 0.6% rise from a previously estimated 0.2% uptick.
Meanwhile, the greenback remained under pressure amid lowered expectations for a mid-year U.S. rate hike after Yellen in testimony to the Senate Banking Committee Tuesday that it was "unlikely" that economic conditions would warrant an interest rate increase for "at least the next couple of FOMC meetings".
In a second day of testimony to the Financial Services Committee on Wednesday Yellen reiterated this message, saying that wage growth and inflation must rise before the bank can hike rates, despite signs of improvement in the labor market.
The Aussie was also lower against the New Zealand dollar, with AUD/NZD dropping 0.54% to 1.0381.
Also Thursday, Statistics New Zealand reported that the country's trade balance swung into a surplus of NZ$56 million last month from a deficit of NZ$195 million in December, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated deficit of NZ$159 million.
Analysts had expected the trade deficit to hit NZ$162 million in January.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to release data on the consumer price index, as well as reports on initial jobless claims and durable goods orders.