Investing.com - The Australian dollar held steady against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday, after the release of downbeat Australian housing sector data, while the New Zealand dollar moved higher despite a disappointing report on business confidence.
AUD/USD was little changed at 0.7480.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics earlier reported that building approvals dropped 12.6% in October, confounding expectations for a 1.5% gain.
Building approvals declined by 9.3% in September, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated 8.7% slide.
NZD/USD rose 0.22% to trade at 0.7144, the highest since November 11.
Data also showed that the ANZ business confidence index for New Zealand slipped to 20.5 this month from a reading of 24.5 in October.
Meanwhile, the greenback still remained supported by expectations that increased fiscal spending and tax cuts under the Trump administration will spur economic growth and inflation.
Expectations that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates at its December policy meeting also continued to underpin the U.S. dollar.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.19% at 101.18, still close to recent 14-year highs of 102.12.