Investing.com - The Australian dollar was almost unchanged against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday, hovering at one-week lows even as data showed that Australian consumer sentiment improved this month.
AUD/USD hit 0.7898 during late Asian trade, the pair's lowest since May 12; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.7891, down 0.29%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.7872, the low of May 11 and resistance at 0.8010, Tuesday's high.
In a report, the Westpac Banking Corporation said that consumer sentiment rose 6.4% this month, after a 3.2% decline in April.
But demand for the greenback remained broadly supported after the U.S. Commerce Department said that the number of building permits issued last month increased by 10.1% last month to 1.143 million units from March's total of 1.038 million.
The report also showed that U.S. housing starts soared by 20.2% in April to hit 1.135 million units from March's total of 944,000 units, easily surpassing expectations for an increase of 9.9%.
Investors were eyeing the minutes of the Federal Reserve's April meeting, due later in the day, for fresh indications on the timing of an initial rate hike.
The Aussie was higher against the euro, with EUR/AUD sliding 0.37% to 1.4037.