Investing.com - The Australian dollar was almost unchanged against its U.S. counterpart on Tuesday, as investors remained cautious after downbeat U.S. housing sector data and ahead of the Federal Reserve's highly anticipated policy statement this week.
AUD/USD hit 0.7228 during late Asian trade, the session low; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.7247.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.7179, the low of October 22 and resistance at 0.7340, the high of October 16.
Demand for the greenback remained under pressure after data on Monday showed that U.S. new home sales dropped 11.5% last month to 468.000 units from a revised total of 529.000 units in August. Analysts had expected new home sales to slip 0.4% to 550.000 in September.
The disappointing report added to speculation that the Federal Reserve will hold off on raising interest rates until well into 2016.
Investors were looking ahead to Wednesday’s monetary policy announcement by the Fed for fresh indications on the timing of an initial rate hike.
The Aussie was steady against the New Zealand dollar, with AUD/NZD at 1.0685.
Earlier Tuesday, Statistics New Zealand reported that the country's trade deficit widened to NZ$1.22 million in September from NZ$1.03 million the previous month. Analysts had expected the trade deficit to narrow to NZ$800 million last month.