Investing.com - The Australian dollar was lower against its U.S. counterpart on Tuesday, as a strong U.S. housing report on Monday continued to support demand for the greenback and as investors began to focus on the Federal Reserve's upcoming policy meeting.
AUD/USD hit 0.9228 during late Asian trade, the pair's lowest since April 3; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.9239, falling 0.18%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.9154, the low of March 26 and resistance at 0.9316, Monday's high.
The greenback remained supported after data on Monday showed that U.S. pending home sales rose for the first time in nine months in March, indicating that the housing market is picking up.
The National Association of Realtors reported that pending home sales jumped 3.4% last month, easily surpassing expectations for a 1% gain. Pending home sales for February were revised to a 0.5% drop from a previously reported decline of 0.8%.
The Aussie was little changed against the New Zealand dollar, with AUD/NZD inching up 0.03% to 1.0844.
Also Tuesday, official data showed that New Zealand's trade surplus widened to NZ$920 million in March, from a surplus of NZ$793 million in February, whose figure was revised down from a previously estimated surplus of NZ$818 million.
Analysts had expected the trade surplus to widen to NZ$937 million last month.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to publish a report compiled by the Conference Board on consumer confidence.