Investing.com - The Australian dollar was almost unchanged against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday, hovering close to a two-week high as investors remained cautious ahead of the Federal Reserve's highly-anticipated policy statement due the next day.
AUD/USD hit 0.7148 during late Asian trade, the session high; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.7149.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.7059, Monday's low and resistance at 0.7174, the high of August 31.
Markets were jittery amid concerns that mixed U.S. economic reports and recent volatility in global financial markets will prompt the U.S. central bank to refrain from hiking interest rates on Thursday.
Data on Tuesday showed that U.S. retail sales rose 0.2% in August, compared to expectations for an increase of 0.3%, while core retail sales, which exclude automobiles, added 0.1% last month, confounding expectations for a 0.2% rise.
A separate report showed that U.S. industrial production fell 0.4% in August, compared to expectations for a 0.2% downtick.
The Australian dollar had come under pressure on Tuesday, after the minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia's latest policy meeting reiterated that very low interest rates will continue to support growth.
The Aussie was higher against the New Zealand dollar, with AUD/NZD edging up 0.12% to 1.1238.
Earlier Wednesday, Statistics New Zealand reported that the country's current account fell into a deficit of NZ$1.22 billion in the second quarter from a surplus of NZ$0.66 billion in the three months to March.
Analysts had expected the current account to fall into a deficit of NZ$1.50 billion in the second quarter.