Investing.com - The Australian dollar dropped to six-year lows against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday, after downbeat consumer sentiment and home loans data from Australia and as demand for the greenback remained broadly supported.
AUD/USD hit 0.7588 during late Asian trade, the pair's lowest since May 2009; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.7611, falling 0.16%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.7239 and resistance at 0.7710, Tuesday's high.
The Westpac Banking Corporation earlier reported that Australia's consumer sentiment fell 1.2% this month, after an increase of 8.0% in February.
Separately, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said that home loans dropped 3.5% in January, compared to expectations for a 2.0% fall, after a 2.7% rise the previous month.
Meanwhile, the greenback remained supported after the latest U.S. jobs report heigthened expectations for higher interest rates.
The Federal Reserve is expected to begin raising interest rates around the middle of this year and investors were looking ahead to next week’s policy statement to see if it would drop its reference to being patient before raising rates.
The Aussie was also lower against the euro, with EUR/AUD edging up 0.15% to 1.4048.