Investing.com - The Australian dollar edged lower against its U.S. counterpart on Monday, despite positive economic reports from Australia as disappointing Chinese manufacturing data weighed on demand for the export-related currency.
AUD/USD hit 0.7803 during late Asian trade, the session low; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.7826, slipping 0.24%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.7789, the low of April 27 and resistance at 0.7919, the high of May 1.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics earlier reported that building approvals rose 2.8% in March, beating expectations for a 2.0% decline. February's figure was revised to a 1.6% fall from a previously estimated 3.2% drop.
Data also showed that Australia's job advertisements increased by 2.3% last month after a 1.3% decline in March, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated 1.4% fall.
Elsewhere, data showed that Chinese manufacturing activity contracted at the fastest rate in a year in April, adding to concerns over a slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy.
China's HSBC final manufacturing purchasing managers' index slipped to 48.9 in April from 49.2 the previous month, compared to expectations for a rise to 49.4.
China is Australia's biggest export partner.
Meanwhile, the greenback regained some ground after a report by the Institute for Supply Management on Friday showed that activity in the manufacturing sector was stable in April, after slowing in the five previous months.
Another report showed that U.S. consumer sentiment rose in April to its highest level since January.
The reports fuelled optimism that the U.S. economy has turned a corner after a recent soft patch.
The Aussie was lower against the euro, with EUR/AUD adding 0.14% to 1.4298.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to publish data on factory orders.