Australian dollar settles lower versus greenback in Asian trade

Australian dollar tilted lower against its US counterpart, following earlier data from Australia and ahead of US imports and housing data later today. 

As of 02:58 GMT, AUD/USD barely inched down to 0.7200, with an intraday low at 0.7189, and a high at 0.7207. 

Earlier Australian data showed an index tracking consumer sentiment in January down 4.7% to 99.6 from 104.4 in December. 

Now investors await US data on import prices, expected to show a 1% drop in December, compared to a 0.5% increase in November, while an index tracking housing prices rose to 61 from 60. 

Markets also await the Beige Book, which is released two weeks before the Federal Reserve's meeting and upon which, policymakers base their decisions and forecasts.