Investing.com - The Australian dollar dropped to fresh six-year lows against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday, despite the release of upbeat consumer sentiment data from Australia, as the devaluation of the Chinese currency on Tuesday continued to weigh.
AUD/USD hit 0.7216 during late Asian trade, the pair's lowest since April 2009; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.7266, sliding 0.53%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.6854 and resistance at 0.7326, the session high.
The Westpac Banking Corporation reported on Wednesday that Australia's consumer sentiment rose 7.8% this month after a 3.2% decline in July.
But the Australian dollar remained under heavy pressure after China devalued the yuan on Tuesday, in an attempt to help exporters after a recent spate of disappointing economic data.
The central bank described it as a “one-off depreciation” of nearly 2%, based on a new way of managing the exchange rate that better reflected market forces.
Earlier Wednesday, data showed that China's industrial production increased at by an annual rate of 6.0% in July, confounding expectations for a 6.6% gain.
Meanwhile, the greenback also remained weak after U.S. data on Tuesday painted a mixed picture of the strength of the economy.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that unit labor costs increased by 0.5% in the three months to June, above forecasts for a gain of 0.1% and following rise of 2.3% in the first quarter.
The report also said that nonfarm business sector labor productivity increased by 1.3% in the second quarter, missing expectations for a gain of 1.6%.
The Aussie was lower against the euro, with EUR/AUD rallying 0.91% to 1.5261.