Investing.com - The Australian dollar rose to two-week highs against its U.S. counterpart on Tuesday, as demand for the greenback began to weaken ahead of the Federal Reserve's highly anticipated policy statement due on Wednesday.
AUD/USD hit 0.8835 during late Asian trade, the pair's highest since October 15; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.8831, gaining 0.33%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.8746, the low of October 23 and resistance at 0.8865, the high of October 15.
Investors were eyeing the conclusion of the Fed’s two day meeting on Wednesday for any indications that a slowdown in growth in Europe or China could prompt the U.S. central bank to delay possible rate hikes.
The Fed was widely expected to wind up its asset purchasing stimulus program, known as quantitative easing.
Sentiment on the greenback also weakened after data on Monday showed that the U.S. service sector expanded at the slowest rate in six months in October as new order growth slowed and business confidence declined.
A separate report showed that U.S. pending homes sales rose just 0.3% in September, missing forecasts for a 0.5% gain.
The Aussie was also higher against the euro, with EUR/AUD shedding 0.22% to 1.4395.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to release data on durable goods orders and a report by the Conference Board on consumer confidence.