Investing.com - The Australian dollar was lower against its U.S. counterpart on Tuesday, as growing optimism over the strength of the U.S. econonmic recovery continued to lend broad support to the greenback.
AUD/USD hit 0.8570 during late Asian trade, the pair's lowest since November 20; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.8573, sliding 0.50%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.8538, the low of November 7 and resistance at 0.8701, the high of November 24.
Demand for the greenback continued to be underpinned after the minutes of the Federal Reserve's October meeting indicated last week that officials believe the economic recovery is strong enough to withstand external threats to growth, but offered little additional clarity about when rates could start to rise.
The Fed wound up its asset purchasing stimulus program last month and is expected to start raising rates around September 2015.
The Aussie was higher against the New Zealand dollar, with AUD/NZD adding 0.13% to 1.0972.
Also Tuesday, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand said that inflation expectations ticked down to 2.1% in the third quarter, from 2.2% in the three months to June.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to release revised data on third quarter gross domestic product and a report on consumer confidence.