Investing.com - The Australian dollar moved lower against the U.S. dollar Wednesday, ahead of the much-anticipated summit of European officials aimed at devising concrete steps to tackle the region’s debt threats.
AUD/USD hit 1.0364 in early Asian trade, the pair’s lowest since Monday; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.0372, declining 0.55%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.9730, the low of October 7, and resistance at 1.0501, Monday’s high.
Leaders from 27 European countries were scheduled to meet in Brussels later Wednesday, followed by a meeting between heads of the 17-nation euro-zone. Finance officials were to meet at an as-yet undetermined later date to work out the details of whatever scheme is agreed upon.
Confidence in the success of the discussions was dented, as the meeting of European Union finance officials scheduled to take place before the summit was cancelled.
Earlier in the day, the Conference Board reported that U.S. consumer confidence fell by 6.8 points to 39.8 in October, down from 46.6 in September. Market expectations were for the index to drop by 0.6 points to 46.0 for the period.
“Consumer expectations, which had improved in September, gave back all of the gain and then some, as concerns about business conditions, the labor market and income prospects increased. Consumer confidence is now back to levels last seen during 2008-2009 recession,” said Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board’s consumer research center following release of the report.
In Tuesday trade, Wall Street shares sagged on a disappointing third-quarter earnings report from Amazon.com Inc. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.74%, the Nasdaq Composite Index surrendered 2.26%, and the S&P 500 gave up 2%.
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In Sydney, Australian shares moved lower in early Wednesday trade, on weakness in mining and financial issues, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 dropping 0.46% to 4,207.50.
Meanwhile, the Australian dollar was lower against both the euro and the Japanese yen, with EUR/AUD rising 0.66% to hit 1.3420, and AUD/JPY down 0.52% to hit 78.92.
The U.S. Census Bureau was scheduled to release its latest monthly figures for durable goods orders later Wednesday.