Investing.com - The Australian dollar rose to three-and-a-half month highs against its U.S. counterpart on Thursday, as Wednesday's U.S. retail sales report continued to weigh on the greenback.
AUD/USD hit 0.8164 during early European trade, the pair's highest since January 21; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.8123, adding 0.15%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.7950, Wednesday's low and resistance at 0.8234, the high of January 21.
The greenback remained under pressure after the U.S. Commerce Department said on Wednesday that retail sales were unchanged, compared to expectations for a 0.2% increase.
Core retail sales, which exclude automobile sales, rose just 0.1%, undershooting forecasts for a 0.5% gain.
The data underlined expectations that the Federal Reserve will delay hiking rates until later in the year, after recent figures showed that the U.S. economy expanded just 0.2% in the first quarter.
The Aussie was lower against the New Zealand dollar, with AUD/NZD dropping 0.65% to 1.0764.
Also Thursday, Statistics New Zealand reported that retail sales increased by 2.7% in the first quarter, exceeding expectations for a 1.5% rise, after a 1.7% gain in the three months to December.
Core retail sales, which exclude automobiles and gas stations, rose 2.9% in the three months to March, beating expectations for a 1.5% gain. The change in core retails for the last quarter of 2014 was revised to a 1.9% increase from a previously estimated 1.5% rise.
A separate report showed that New Zealand's Business Manufacturing Index slipped to 51.8 last month from 54.6 in March, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated reading of 54.5.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to publish reports on producer prices and initial jobless claims.