Investing.com - The Australian dollar moved lower against the U.S. dollar Wednesday, as an improvement in Australian consumer sentiment was not enough to offset market uncertainty over the fate of Europe’s debt bailout package.
AUD/USD hit 0.9914 in early Asian trade, the pair’s lowest since Tuesday; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.9916, declining 0.37%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.9726, last Friday’s low, and short-term resistance at 1.0078, the high of September 22.
Slovakia’s Parliament, on Tuesday, postponed a vote on expanding the USD600 billion European Financial Stability Facility, raising new concerns over the region’s ability to stem the spread of debt in the euro-zone.
Earlier in the day, representative of the so-called troika, the European Union, International Monetary Fund, and European Central Bank, said Greece was likely to receive its USD10.9 billion rescue tranche by early November, allowing Athens to avert default.
Separately Tuesday, the Westpac-Melbourne Institute reported that its Index of Consumer Sentiment rose marginally in October, up 0.4% to 97.2, the second consecutive month of gains for the index.
Westpac chief economist Bill Evans said the index gain was likely due to the perceived change in rhetoric from the Reserve Bank of Australia on interest rates.
“After discussing the option of raising interest rates as recently as August, the RBA reported that it had adopted an easing bias at its October board meeting,” Evans said, following release of the report.
In Sydney, Australian shares moved higher in early Wednesday trade, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 dropping 0.90% 4,189.40.
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Meanwhile, the Australian dollar was lower against both the euro and the Japanese yen, with EUR/AUD rising 0.16% to hit 1.3726, and AUD/JPY down 0.27% to hit 76.06.
Australia’s Bureau of Statistics was due to release its latest employment report later Wednesday.