Investing.com - The Australian dollar rose against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday, helped by data showing that China’s trade surplus widened unexpectedly last month.
AUD/USD hit 0.7049 during late Asian trade, the pair’s highest since January 8; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.7017, gaining 0.45%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.6937, Tuesday’s low and resistance at 0.7075, the high of January 8.
Data earlier showed that China’s trade surplus widened to $60.09 billion in December from $54.10 billion the previous month. Analysts had expected the trade surplus to narrow to $53.00 billion last month.
China’s imports declined at an annual rate of 7.6% last month, compared to expectations for a 11.5% drop, while exports fell 1.4% compared to expectations for a 8.0% slide.
China is Australia’s biggest export partner.
Meanwhile, sentiment slightly improved after the People's Bank of China set the mid-point for the yuan at 6.5630 to the dollar, unchanged from firm fixes on the previous two days.
The fixing came as the central bank put a squeeze on offshore sellers of the currency by making it prohibitively expensive to speculate against the yuan in offshore markets, easing fears of a sustained depreciation.
The Aussie was also higher against the euro, with EUR/AUD declining 0.76% to 1.5434.