Investing.com - The Australian dollar slipped lower against its U.S. counterpart on Monday, as hopes for an upcoming U.S. rate hike and upbeat economic growth data continued to lend support to the greenback.
AUD/USD hit 0.7125 during late Asian trade, the session low; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.7147, down 0.26%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.7095, the low of August 27 and resistance at 0.7207, Friday's high.
The greenback remained supported after Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer said it was still too early to determine whether to raise short-term interest rates from near zero, where they have been held since December 2008, at the bank’s September meeting.
The U.S. dollar had also strengthened after data last Thursday showed that the U.S. economy grew at a faster than expected rate in the second quarter.
In Australian, data on Monday showed that company gross operating profits fell 1.9% in the second quarter, compared to expectations for a 2.0% decline. Company gross operating profits slid 0.3% in the first quarter, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated 0.2% gain.
The Aussie was higher against the New Zealand dollar, with AUD/NZD rising 0.37% to 1.1132.
Also Monday, data showed that the ANZ business confidence index for New Zealand fell to minus 29.1 this month from 15.3 in July. Analysts had expected the index to improve to minus 7.5 in August.