Investing.com - The Australian dollar was higher against its U.S. counterpart on Thursday, supported by the release of strong Australian data, while investors awaited the European Central Bank's policy statement later in the day.
AUD/USD hit 0.9034 during late Asian trade, the pair's highest since February 24; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.9021, gaining 0.41%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.8910, the low of March 4 and resistance at 0.9081, the high of February 18.
Official data earlier showed that retail sales in Australia rose 1.2% in January, beating expectations for a 0.5% gain. Retail sales in December were revised up to a 0.7% increase from a previously estimated 0.5% rise.
A separate report showed that Australia's trade surplus expanded to A$1.43 billion in January from A$0.59 billion in December, whose figure was revised up from a previously estimates surplus of A$0.47 billion.
Analysts had expected the trade surplus to narrow to A$0.27 billion in January.
Meanwhile, the ECB was expected to hold off cutting rates later Thursday but was expected to take other steps to tighten policy, amid ongoing concerns over the subdued inflation outlook for the euro area.
The Aussie was higher against the euro, with EUR/AUD shedding 0.37% to 1.5227.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to publish the weekly report on initial jobless claims and data on factory orders.