Investing.com - The Australian dollar was steady against its U.S. counterpart on Thursday, hovering close to five-and-a-half year lows after the release of tepid Australian data and as markets were jittery ahead of the European Central Bank's highly-anticipated policy statement later in the day.
AUD/USD hit 0.8056 during late Asian trade, the pair's lowest since January 7; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.8090.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.8031, the low of January 7 and a five-and-a-half year low and resistance at 0.8235, Wednesday's high.
The Melbourne Institute earlier reported that its inflation expectations for the next 12 months ticked down to 3.2% in December from 3.4% in November.
A separate report showed that Australia's new home sales rose 2.2% in November, after an increase of 3.0% the previous month.
Markets were jittery as investors waited to see if the European Central Bank would embark on a large scale quantitative easing program later in the day.
The Aussie was higher against the euro, with EUR/AUD slipping 0.32% to 1.4312.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to release data on initial jobless claims.