Investing.com - The Australian dollar egded lower against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday, despite the release of upbeat Australian data, while the New Zealand dollar held steady as markets eyed the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest policy meeting.
AUD/USD was down 0.12% at 0.7569, not far from the previous session's five-month trough of 0.7532.
Earlier Wednesday, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that construction work done climbed 15.7% in the third quarter, confounding expectations for a 2.3% decline.
Construction work done increased by 9.8% in the previous quarter, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated 9.3% gain.
The Aussie had weakened after the minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia's November meeting underlined concerns over the slow wage growth.
NZD/USD was little changed at 0.6832.
Market participants were eyeing the minutes of the Fed's most recent policy meeting, due later Wednesday, as the report could offer clues on the pace of potential interest rate hikes.
In a speech late Tuesday, Fed Chair Janet Yellen said the central bank is "reasonably close" to its goals and should keep gradually raising interest rates to avoid the risk of letting inflation slip below target for too long and of pushing unemployment down too far.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was down 0.16% at 93.74 by 02:15 a.m. ET (06:15 GMT).