Investing.com - The Australian dollar rallied against its U.S. counterpart on Thursday, boosted by the release of a strong jobs data from Australia, while the greenback continued to weaken ahead of the the Federal Reserve's next policy decision.
AUD/USD hit 0.7335 during late Asian trade, the pair's highest since December 7; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.7294, advancing 0.89%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.7168, Wednesday's low and resistance at 0.7365, the high of December 3.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported on Thursday that the number of employed people increased by 71,400 in November, confounding expectations for a 10,000 decline.
The number of employed people rose by 56,100 in October, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated 58,600 gain.
Australia's unemployment rate ticked down to 5.8% last month from 5.9% in October, compared to expectations for a rise to 6.0%.
Separately, the Melbourne Institute said that its inflation expectations for the next 12 months rose to 4.0% last month from 3.5% in October.
Meanwhile, sentiment on the greenback remained fragile as investors became increasingly cautious ahead of the Fed's highly-anticipated policy meeting next week.
The U.S. dollar had rallied to 11-/12 year highs against other major currencies earlier in the week after Friday's strong U.S. employment data added to expectations that the Fed will hike interest rates for the first time since 2006.
The Aussie was higher against the New Zealand dollar, with AUD/NZD gaining 0.49% to 1.0810.
Earlier Thursday, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand lowered its benchmark interest rate from 2.75% to 2.50%, in a widely expected move.
Commenting on the decision, RBNZ Governor Graeme Wheeler said that such a level should be low enough to meet the central bank's inflation target, but that it remains prepared to lower rates again if necessary.