Investing.com - The Australian dollar edged lower against its U.S. counterpart on Monday, but losses were expected to remain limited as last week's disappointing U.S. consumer sentiment data continued to dampen demand for the greenback.
AUD/USD hit 0.9335 during late Asian trade, the session low; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.9349, slipping 0.17%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.9271, the low of May 6 and resistance at 0.9409, the high of May 14.
The greenback came under pressure after data on Friday showed that the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index dropped to 81.8, from 84.1 the month before. Analysts had expected a slight uptick to 84.5.
The data overshadowed a report by the Commerce Department also released on Friday and showing that U.S. housing starts rose 13.2% last month, after a 2.0% increase in March. It was the largest increase in five months, indicating that the economy is shaking off the effect of a weather related slowdown over the winter.
The Aussie was lower against the New Zealand dollar, with AUD/NZD shedding 0.28% to 1.0825.
Also Monday, official data showed that producer price inflation input in New Zealand rose 1% in the first quarter, above expectations for a 0.4% rise, after a 0.7% fall in the three months to December.
PPI output in New Zealand rose 0.9% in the last quarter, exceeding expectations for a 0.7% gain, after a 0.4% slip in the previous quarter.