Investing.com - The Australian dollar rose against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday, easing off a one-month low despite the release of downbeat construction work data from Australia, as investors locked in gains from the greenback's recent rally.
AUD/USD hit 0.7766 during late Asian trade, the session high; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.7767, rising 0.40%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.7707, the low of April 23 and resistance at 0.7839, Tuesday's high.
In a report, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said that construction work done dropped 2.4% in the first quarter, compared to expectations for a 1.5% decline. The change in construction work done for the last quarter of 2014 was revised to a 0.6% slip from a previously estimated 0.2% downtick.
The greenback had strengthened broadly after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen reiterated Friday that the bank still expects to start raising interest rates later in the year if the economy continues to improve as expected.
The U.S. dollar was also boosted after the U.S. Commerce Department said on Tuesday that new home sales jumped 6.8% to 517,000 units last month, compared to expectations for a 0.5% gain.
The Commerce Department also reported that core durable goods orders, excluding volatile transportation items, inched up 0.5% in April, beating forecasts for an increase of 0.4%.
In addition, the Conference Board said its index of consumer confidence rose to 95.4 this month from a reading of 94.3 in April.
The Aussie was steady against the euro, with EUR/AUD at 1.4060.