Investing.com - The Australian dollar was steady against its U.S. counterpart on Monday, after the release of downbeat economic reports from Australia and China, while sentiment on the greenback remained fragile after Friday's U.S. employment data.
AUD/USD hit 0.9290 during late Asian trade, the session high; the pair subsequenly consolidated at 0.9281, easing up 0.05%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.9203, the low of May 2 and resistance at 0.9377, the high of April 23.
Official data earlier showed that building approvals in Australia dropped 3.5% in March, compared to expectations for a 1% rise. Building approvals in February were revised down to a 5.4% decline from a previously estimated 5% drop.
A separate report showed that job advertisements in Australia rose 2.2% in April, after a 1.4% increase the previous month.
Meanwhile, China’s HSBC manufacturing purchasing managers’ index came in at 48.1, down from a preliminary estimate of 48.3 and missing forecasts for an uptick to 48.4.
China is Australia's biggest export partner.
In the U.S. official data on Friday showed that the economy added 288,000 jobs in April, well above expectations for jobs growth of 210,000, while the unemployment rate dropped to a five-and-a-half year low of 6.3%.
The greenback came under pressure however, as the report also showed that the labor force participation rate, which measures the proportion of people either working or looking for work, fell and wage growth weakened.
The Aussie was little changed against the euro, with EUR/AUD dipping 0.01% to 1.4950.
Later in the day, the Institute of Supply Management was to publish a report on U.S. service sector activity.