Investing.com - The Australian dollar was higher against its U.S. counterpart on Tuesday, but gains were expected to remain limited as the greenback took a breather from its recent upward trend but remained broadly supported.
AUD/USD hit 0.8768 during late Asian trade, the session high; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.8754, advancing 0.39%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.8682, Monday's low and an eight-month low and a resistance at 0.8814, the high of September 26.
The greenback remained broadly supported by the view that the strengthening economic recovery in the U.S. would prompt the Federal Reserve to hike rates sooner.
A report on Monday showed that U.S. household spending rose at a faster than expected rate in August, indicating that the economic recovery was likely to continue in the current quarter.
Elsewhere, revised data showed that China's HSBC manufacturing purchasing managers' index fell to 50.2 in September, from a reading of 50.5 in August.
China is Australia's biggest export partner.
The Aussie was lower against the New Zealand dollar, with AUD/NZD edging down 0.12% to 1.1216.
Also Tuesday, data showed that the ANZ business confidence index for New Zealand fell to a more than two-year low of 13.4 in September, from a reading of 24.4 the previous month.
A separate report showed that building consents in New Zealand were flat last month, after a 1.7% decline in July whose figure was revised from a previously estimated 0.1% uptick.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to publish data on business activity in the Chicago region and a report on consumer confidence.