Investing.com - The Australian dollar rose to three-week highs against its U.S. counterpart on Thursday, boosted by upbeat Australian employment data, while Wednesday's weak U.S. data continued to weigh on the greenback.
AUD/USD hit 0.7781 during late Asian trade, the pair's highest since March 27; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.7735, climbing 0.74%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.7567, Wednesday's low and resistance at 0.7842, the high of March 27.
In a report, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said that the number of employed people rose by 37,700 in March, exceeding expectations for an increase of 15,000. February's figure was revised to a 41,900 gain from a previously estimated 15,600 rise.
The report also showed that Australia's unemployment report ticked down to 6.1% last month from 6.2% in February, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated at 6.3%. Analysts had expected the unemployment rate to remain at 6.3%.
Meanwhile, the greenback remained under pressure after data on Wednesday showed that U.S. industrial production fell 0.6% in March, the largest fall since August 2012 and worse than economists' expectations for a 0.3% decline.
The added to speculation that the Federal Reserve could delay hiking interest rates until late 2015, instead of tightening midyear.
The Aussie was also higher against the euro, with EUR/AUD dropping 0.90% to 1.3784.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to release a string of reports, including jobless claims, building permits, housing starts and manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia region.