The Australian dollar is trading higher today, fending off disappointing consumer confidence data as well as a lower than expected home loans number.

At 8.15am (GMT) the Aussie dollar was trading at US70.46c up from US70.16c in yesterdays close.

The latest Westpac consumer confidence index came in at 93.9 against last month’s reading of 99.5 with a number below 100 showing a negative view of the economy.

With China in the news for all of the wrong reasons as well as a lower Australian dollar, the disappointing figure was somewhat no surprise, noted Westpac's chief economist Bill Evans,

"Of course, the deluge of disturbing news around violent gyrations in both Australian and overseas equity markets; poor economic data from China; a disappointing report on Australia's growth rate and the weakness in the Australian dollar were also likely to have unnerved households," he said. 

In a sign there is still some life left in the Australian property market the latest home loans figure hit the market at 0.3% and although positive, was well down on last month’s figure of a 4.4% increase., according to the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)..