Aussie lower vs dollar despite upbeat data; Greenback recovers vs rivals

On Tuesday the Australian dollar was lower against its U.S. peer, despite upbeat business confidence data from Australia. The greenback was also broadly lower after Monday's report saying that U.S. President Barack Obama

AUD/USD lost 0.46% hitting 0.7668 during late Asian trade, the session low.

Earlier, the National Australia Bank said its business confidence index rose to 7 in May from a reading of 3 the previous month.

Data also signaled that Australia's home loans increased by 1.0% in April, confounding expectations for a 2.0% decline after a 1.5% fall in March.

The dollar was pressured after rumors of Barack Obama comments.

On Monday Bloomberg news agency cited an unnamed French official who referred to U.S. President Barack Obama as saying that a strong dollar was a problem. The report came after a group of French reporters met President Francois Hollande on Monday ahead of the second day of the G7 summit.

The White House denied the report, however investors were cautious as U.S. policy makers, including from the Federal Reserve, have in the past few months expressed worries about a strong currency impacting growth and exports.

On Tuesday the euro was 0.12% lower vs greenback with EUR/USD trading at 1.1279.

The euro moved higher on Monday as German 10-year bund yields rose, and also received an additional support after data on German’s trade surplus and industrial output indicated that the euro zone’s largest economy is picking up after poor performance in the first quarter. Late Monday, EUR/USD was higher 0.23% to 1.1319 from 1.1290. The pair ended that session up 1.71%.

The dollar was slightly lower vs yen shedding 0.03% to settle at 124.45.

The New Zealand dollar plunged against the greenback during late Asia trade, as the latter recovered from Monday losses, though remaining fragile.

NZD/USD hit 0.7106 during late Asian trade, the session low; the pair subsequently settled at 0.7112, losing 0.46%.

In New Zealand, data earlier showed that manufacturing sales dipped by 2.8% in the first quarter, after a 1.0% fall in the last three months of 2014.