Investing.com - The Australian dollar rose to two-week highs against its U.S. counterpart on Tuesday, after the Reserve Bank of Australia left interest rates unchanged and as lower expectations for a U.S. rate hike this year continued to weigh on the greenback.
AUD/USD hit 0.7135 during late Asian trade, the pair's highest since September 22; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.7117, gaining 0.47%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.7035, Monday's low and resistance at 0.7197, the high of September 21.
In a widely expected move, the RBA left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 2.00% and added that any changes in monetary policy will be determined by "further information on economic and financial conditions to be received over the period ahead".
The central bank also said that "the available information suggests that moderate expansion in the economy continues".
Separately, official data showed that Australia's trade deficit widened to A$3.095 billion in August from A$2.792 billion in July, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated deficit of A$2.792 billion. Analysts had expected the trade deficit to narrow to A$2.550 billion in August.
Meanwhile, the greenback remained under pressure as weak U.S. jobs data on Friday underlined fears that a slowdown in global economic growth has spread to the U.S. economy and prompted investors to push back expectations on the timing of an initial rate hike by the Federal Reserve to early 2016.
On Monday, the Institute of Supply Management reported that its non-manufacturing purchasing managers' index fell to 56.9 in September from a reading of 59.0 the previous month. Analysts had expected the index to tick down to 57.5 last month.
The Aussie was also higher against the euro, with EUR/AUD declining 0.47% to 1.5719.