Investing.com - The Australian dollar fell to a 3-week lows against its U.S. counterpart on Tuesday, as demand for the greenback continued to be broadly supported by recent U.S. inflation data and expectations for a rate hike in the coming months.
AUD/USD hit 0.7809 during late Asian trade, the session low; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.7799, shedding 0.28%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.7789, the low of April 27 and resistance at 0.7874, the high of April 27.
The greenback remained supported after data on Friday showed that U.S. core consumer prices rose 0.3% in April and were 1.8% higher on a year-over-year basis, the largest increase since October.
The U.S. dollar was also boosted after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen reiterated that the bank still expected to start raising interest rates later this year if the economy continued to improve as expected.
The Aussie was steady against the New Zealand dollar, with AUD/NZD at 1.0702.
Earlier Tuesday, Statistics New Zealand reported that the country's trade surplus narrowed to NZ$123 million in April from NZ$754 million in March, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated surplus of NZ$631 million.
Analysts had expected the trade surplus to narrow to NZ$100 million last month.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to release reports on durable goods orders and consumer confidence.