Investing.com - The Australian dollar dropped to one-week lows against its U.S. counterpart on Thursday, after the release of mixed Australian data and as comments by the Reserve Bank of Australia weighed.
AUD/USD hit 0.9372 during late Asian trade, the pair's lowest since June 25; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.9369, retreating 0.79%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.9323, the low of June 18 and resistance at 0.9441, the high of June 27.
The Australian dollar weakened after RBA Governor Glenn Stevens said the currency was "overvalued" by most measures.
In a speech delivered earlier in the day, Stevens added that investors are under-estimating the probability of a "significant fall" in the Australian dollar at some point.
Meanwhile, official data showed that retail sales in Australia fell 0.5% in May, confounding expectations for a 0.3% rise, after a 0.1% slip in April, whose figure was revised down from a previously estimated 0.2% increase.
A separate report showed that building approvals in Australia climbed 9.9% in May, exceeding expectations for a 3% rise, after a 5.8% drop in April, whose figure was revised down from a previously estimated 5.6% decline.
The greenback remained supported after Wednesday’s ADP nonfarm payrolls report showed that the U.S private sector added 281,000 jobs last month, outstripping expectations for an increase of 200,000. It was the largest increase since November 2012.
The Aussie was also lower against the euro, with EUR/AUD gaining 0.77% to 1.4572.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to publish data on the trade balance, as well as the weekly report on initial jobless claims, government data on nonfarm payrolls and the unemployment rate, one day ahead of schedule, before the fourth of July holiday. In addition, the Institute of Supply Management was to publish a report service sector activity.