Investing.com - The Australian dollar dropped over 1% against its U.S. counterpart on Thursday, as the greenback recovered from news U.S. interest rates will likely remain on hold for a longer period of time.
AUD/USD hit 0.7718 during late Asian trade, the session low; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.7691, tumbling 1.04%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.7588, Wednesday's low and resistance at 0.7845, Wednesday's high.
The greenback found broad support after dropping sharply on Wednesday when the Fed indicated that U.S. economic growth has moderated and that interest rates will rise at a slower pace than previously forecast.
In a statement following its monetary policy meeting, the U.S. central bank also downgraded its forecasts for growth and inflation.
The Aussie was lower against the New Zealand dollar, with AUD/NZD shedding 0.38% to 1.0342.
Also Thursday, official data showed that New Zealand's gross domestic product expanded at a rate of 0.8% in the fourth quarter of 2014, in line with expectations and down from 0.9% in the previous quarter, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated growth rate of 1.0%.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to release reports on jobless claims, the current account and manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia region.