Investing.com - The Australian dollar rose to one-week highs against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday, after the release of upbeat economic reports from Australia, although hopes for an upcoming U.S. rate hike continued to lend support to the greenback.
AUD/USD hit 0.7224 during late Asian trade, the pair's highest since October 27; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.7206, rising 0.28%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.7103, the low of November 2 and resistance at 0.7261, the high of October 27.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday that retail sales rose 0.4% in September, in line with expectations and after a 0.4% gain the previous month.
A separate report showed that Australia's trade deficit narrowed to A$2.317 billion in September from A$2.711 billion in August, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated deficit of A$3.095 billion.
Analysts had expected the trade deficit to hit A$3.000 billion in September.
In the U.S., investors were turning their attention to Friday's nonfarm payrolls report for indications on the likelihood of a December rate hike.
The Federal Reserve left rates on hold last week but indicated that it could still raise interest rates for the first time since 2006 at its December meeting.
The Aussie was also higher against the euro, with EUR/AUD dropping 0.55% to 1.5171.