Investing.com - The Australian dollar dropped to two-and-a-half month lows against its U.S. counterpart on Thursday, as the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest policy meeting sent the greenback broadly higher.
AUD/USD hit 0.9238 during late Asian trade, the pair's lowest since June 3; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.9262, shedding 0.27%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.9230, the low of June 3 and resistance at 0.9292, the session high.
The greenback strengthened after Wednesday’s minutes of the Fed’s July meeting showed that some officials believe the strengthening recovery and ongoing improvement in the labor market supports a move towards tightening monetary policy.
Other officials want to see further evidence of economic recovery before moving towards raising rates.
Investors were looking ahead to a speech by Fed Chair Janet Yellen in Jackson Hole on Friday for further indications on the possible future direction of monetary policy.
Elsewhere, data on Thursday showed that the preliminary reading of China’s HSBC manufacturing index fell to a three month low of 50.3 in August from 51.7 in July and well short of forecasts for 51.5.
China is Australia's biggest export partner.
In Australia, the Conference Board said that its leading index rose 0.4% in June, after a 0.2% gain the previous month.
The Aussie was lower against the euro, with EUR/AUD rising 0.29% to 1.4318.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to produce data on unemployment claims, manufacturing activity and existing home sales.