Investing.com - The Australian dollar fell against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday, pulling away from three-week highs as market sentiment weakened ahead of the Federal Reserve's policy statement expected later in the day.
AUD/USD hit 0.7980 during late Asian trade, the session low; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.7997, shedding 0.31%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.7829, Tuesday's low and resistance at 0.8052, the high of January 23.
The greenback came under pressure after the U.S. Conference Board said on Tuesday that its index of consumer confidence fell to 95.2 this month from a reading of 101.4 in March.
The report added to a recent string of disappointing data which has prompted investors to scale back expectations on the timing of a first rate hike by the U.S. central bank.
Investors were looking ahead to preliminary data on first quarter U.S. economic growth and a report on pending home sales later in the day for further indications on the strength of the recovery, ahead of the Federal Reserve's policy announcement.
The kiwi was higher against the Australian dollar, with AUD/NZD edging down 0.20% to 1.0375.
Also Wednesday, Statistics New Zealand reported that the country's trade surplus widened to NZ$631 million in March from NZ$50 million the previous month. Analysts had expected the trade surplus to widen to NZ$341 million last month.
A separate report showed that the ANZ business confidence index for New Zealand slipped to 30.2 this month from 35.8 in March.