Investing.com - The Australian dollar dropped against its U.S. counterpart on Thursday, as disappointing Chinese manufacturing data weighed, while the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest policy meeting supported the greenback.
AUD/USD hit 0.8937 during late Asian trade, the pair's lowest since February 13; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.8958, retreating 0.49%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.8874, the low of February 5 and resistance at 0.9081, the high of September 18.
The Aussie weakened after data showed that the preliminary reading of China’s HSBC manufacturing index fell to a seven month low of 48.3 this month, down from 49.5 in January, remaining below the 50 level that separates expansion from contraction for a second month.
China is Australia's biggest export partner.
Meanwhile, the greenback remained supported after the minutes of the Fed's January meeting indicated that that the current pace of its decrease in bond purchases would remain unchanged, so long as the economy shows signs of improvement.
The Aussie was lower against the euro, with EUR/AUD climbing 0.50% to 1.5333.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to release the weekly report on initial jobless claims and data on consumer price inflation, as well as a report on manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia region.