Investing.com - The Australian dollar hit 9-month lows against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday, weighed by the release of disappointing retail sales data from Australia, while expectations for an early U.S. rate hike continued to support the greenback.
AUD/USD hit 0.8664 during late Asian trade, the pair's lowest since January; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.8698, declining 0.57%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.8658 and resistance at 0.8768, Tuesday's high.
Official data earlier showed that Australian retail sales rose 0.1% in August, disappointing expectations for a 0.4% gain, after an increase of 0.4% in July.
Elsewhere, data showed that China's manufacturing purchasing managers' index remained unchanged at 51.1 last month, compared to expectations for a downtick to 51.0.
China is Australia's biggest export partner.
Meanwhile, 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.
Investors were looking ahead to Friday’s U.S. nonfarm payrolls report after August’s report fell short of expectations.
The Aussie was lower against the euro, with EUR/AUD gaining 0.52% to 1.4512.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to release the ADP report on private sector job creation, as well as a report by the Institute of Supply Management on manufacturing activity.