Investing.com - The Australian dollar slid lower against its U.S. counterpart on Tuesday, re-approaching a recent six-year trough as hopes for a U.S. rate hike in the coming months continued to lend broad support to the greenback.
AUD/USD hit 0.7619 during late Asian trade, the pair's lowest since March 19; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.7627, sliding 0.37%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.7570, the low of March 19 and resistance at 0.7761, Monday's high.
The greenback strengthened on Monday after the U.S. National Association of Realtors said pending home sales rose 3.1% last month, easily surpassing expectations for a 0.4% gain.
The data came after the U.S. Commerce Department said that personal spending inched up 0.1% last month, while personal income rose 0.4% in February, above forecasts for a 0.3% increase.
The U.S. dollar also remained supported after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said in a speech on Friday that a rate hike may be warranted later this year, but added that weakening inflation pressures could force the Fed to delay.
In Australia, data on Tuesday showed that new home sales rose 1.1% in February, after a 1.8% increase the previous month.
The Aussie was steady against the New Zealand dollar, with AUD/NZD at 1.0198.
Also Tuesday, data showed that the ANZ business confidence index for New Zealand rose to 35.8 this month from a reading of 34.4 in February.
A separate report showed that New Zealand's building consents declined 6.3% in February after a 4.6% fall in January, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated 3.8% slip.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to release data on consumer confidence.