Forex Pros – The Australian dollar was down against its U.S. counterpart on Tuesday, sliding to a four-day low after a major earthquake hit neighboring New Zealand, while ongoing unrest in the Middle East also weighed.
AUD/USD hit 0.9984 during late Asian trade, the pair’s lowest since February 16; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.9996, shedding 0.97%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.9942, the low of February 15 and resistance at 1.0150, Monday’s high.
Earlier in the day, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake caused multiple deaths and toppled buildings in New Zealand’s second largest city, Christchurch.
The earthquake follows a quake that struck the city in September and caused approximately NZD5 billion of damage in what was the worst quake to rock the Pacific nation in 80 years.
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Meanwhile, In Libya, scores of anti-government protesters were killed on Monday as the government attacked demonstrators and rebels claimed control of the nation’s second largest city, Benghazi.
In addition to Libya, anti-government demonstrations continued in several other nations in the Mideast and North Africa, including Bahrain, Yemen, Iran and Morocco.
The Aussie was also down against the euro, with EUR/AUD easing up 0.02% to hit 1.3558.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to publish data on consumer confidence compiled by the Conference Board as well as industry data on house prices and a report on manufacturing activity in Richmond.
ForexPros.com
