Investing.com - The Aussie gained smartly China tarde data came in unexpectedly strong with imports boding well for commodity demand.
AUD/USD traded at 0.7500, up 0.27%, and USD/JPY changed hands at 113.28, down 0.43%.
China reported its trade balance for November as a surplus of $44.61 billion, compared with a surplus of $46.30 billion seen and exports posted a slight increase of 0.1%, well above the decline of 5.0% expected, while imports jumped 6.7%, well above 1.3% fall seen.
Earlier in Japan, third quarter GDP rose 0.3%, weaker than the 0.6% gain seen quarter-on-quarter and at a 1.3% pace year-on-year, well below the 2.4% increase expected.
The revised figures fall under a new base year and international standard that were adjusted along with a sharp upward revsion in first quarter figures. Going forward, Japan's lukewarm economy has made a solid start to the final quarter of 2016 and the government revised up its assessment of the economy,saying it is "improving," instead of "stalling," reflecting a firmer tone in the
coincident composite index for October.
It was the first upgrade based on the key indicator since December 2014 and the first change since May 2015, when it downgraded its view to "stalling" from "improving."
Earlier, Japan said the non-seasonally adjusted current account reached a surplus of ¥1.720 trillion in October.
Australia reported trade balance data for October with a deficit of A$1.541 billion, wider than the A$800 million deficit seen.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, fell 0.25% to 100.03.
Overnight, the dollar held steady against the other majors currencies on Wednesday, as investors remained cautious ahead of the European Central Bank’s policy meeting on Thursday and the highly-anticipated Federal Reserve policy decision due next week.
Elsewhere, China's foreign exchange reserves fell for a fifth straight month in November and by more than expected to the lowest since March 2011, with a drop of $69.06 billion to $3.052 trillion. The data released by the central bank follows figures the previous month showing a drop of $45.7 billion in October.
Markets were still recovering after Italian voters rejected on Sunday constitutional changes backed by the government and the subsequent resignation of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.
However there were indications that Italy would not hold early elections after Renzi’s resignation, with many analysts thinking it more likely that a caretaker government will be put in place until an election in 2018.
Meanwhile, the greenback remained broadly supported after Friday’s solid U.S. jobs report for November confirmed expectations for an interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve this month.