Investing.com - The Australian dollar held steady against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday, after data showed that Australia's wage prices rose slightly less than expected in the first quarter ans demand for the greenback broadly weakened.
AUD/USD hit 0.7952 during late Asian trade, the session low; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.7975.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.7886, Tuesday's low and resistance at 0.8032, the high of May 6.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics earlier reported that its wage price index rose 0.5% in the first quarter, disappointing expectations for a 0.6% gain and after a 0.6% increase in the three months to December.
The Aussie was also lower against the New Zealand dollar, with AUD/NZD dropping 0.45% to 1.0790.
Also Wednesday, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand said, in its biannual Financial Stability Report, that the kiwi was "above its sustainable level."
Commenting on the report, RBNZ Governor Graeme Wheeler said "we still think the exchange rate is unjustified and unsustainable and we'd like to see a movement downwards in the exchange rate.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to publish data on retail sales.