Investing.com - The Australian dollar was higher against its U.S. counterpart on Tuesday, after the Reserve Bank of Australia's latest meeting minutes as the greenback remained under pressure following a recent string of downbeat U.S. data.
AUD/USD hit 0.7809 during late Asian trade, the pair's highest since February 9; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.7800, rising 0.35%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.7691, the low of February 11 and resistance at 0.7879, the high of February 6.
In the minutes of the RBA's February policy meeting, the central bank said it cut rates due to the deteriorating economic outlook.
Economic growth is expected to pick up later than the RBA expected, while unemployment is set to peak higher than originally forecast.
The RBA surprised markets earlier in the month when it lowered its benchmark interest rate to a new record-low 2.25% from 2.50%.
Meanwhile, the greenback remained under pressure after data on Friday showed that the preliminary reading of the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index fell to 93.6, down from January’s final reading of 98.1. Economists had forecast an unchanged figure.
The report came a day after data showing that U.S. retail sales unexpectedly fell 0.8% last month after dropping 0.9% in December, indicating that consumer spending remained sluggish at the start of the year.
The Aussie was also higher against the euro, with EUR/AUD shedding 0.35% to 1.4557.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to release data on manufacturing activity in New York State as well as a private sector survey of home builders.