Investing.com - The Australian dollar tumbled over 1% to hit one-week lows against its U.S. counterpart on Tuesday, after the release of downbeat business confidence data from Australia, while expectations for a September rate hike in the U.S. continued to support the greenback.
AUD/USD hit 0.7306 during late Asian trade, the pair's lowest since August 4; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.7322, tumbling 1.21%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.7261, the low of August 4 and resistance at 0.7440, the session high.
The National Australia Bank reported on Tuesday that its business confidence index fell to 4 in July from a reading of 8 in June, whose figure was downwardly revised from a previously estimated reading of 10.
Analysts had expected the index to rise to 11 last month.
Meanwhile, the greenback remained supported after the Labor Department said on Friday that the U.S. economy added 215,000 jobs last month, slightly lower than forecasts for an increase of 223,000, but still consistent with strong employment growth.
Hourly earnings, a component of the jobs report that the Federal Reserve has said must rise, ticked up 0.2%, also matching forecasts after stalling in the previous month.
The data was seen as reinforcing expectations that the Fed will raise short term interest rates in the coming months, possibly as early as September.
The Aussie was also lower against the euro, with EUR/AUD climbing 0.85% to 1.4992.