The Australian dollar slipped on Monday as mixed business data, concerns about China and positioning before a possible rate rise in the United States undermined relative stability in global markets. 
In late local trade, the Aussie was fetching US71.53Â¢, compared with US71.66Â¢ at the same time on Friday.
The currency traded in a tight range all day, although weaker than expected business inputs to this week's gross domestic product figure and a negative start to Chinese share trading triggered some selling about noon.
The local unit later recovered some lost ground as buyers moved in, but traders remain jittery.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Monday that seasonally adjusted non-farm inventories for the three months were unchanged from those at the end of the   March quarter, which had been revised up. Year on year, stock climbed 1 per cent.
Inventories feed into the expenditure measure of GDP growth, which also takes in consumer and government spending and exports. A surprising build-up of inventories helped push GDP growth in the   March quarter to 0.9 per cent.
Monday's figures were slightly below expectations of a 0.2 per cent rise, and are likely to have a small impact on calculations for   June quarter GDP, released on Wednesday. The final figure will now depend on net exports and public sector demand, which are both published on Tuesday.
Economists expect quarterly growth in output of about 0.4 per cent on average, giving year-on-year growth of 2.2 per cent. However, the spectrum of forecasts is wide, ranging from no growth to more than 0.6 per cent.
Some already bearish economists said after Monday's business data release that GDP growth could be flat or even negative.
This could fuel further talks of a third rate cut this year by the Reserve Bank of Australia, although no one expects any change at its board meeting on Tuesday. Any surprise in the remaining GDP inputs on Tuesday could drive further selling of the Aussie.
Its decline last week, to as low as US70.50Â¢, was driven by a rise in risk aversion and a sell-off in Asian emerging market currencies. Expectations that the US Federal Reserve will lift interest rates for the first time in almost a decade this year also remains a factor.
National Australia Bank senior economist David de Garis expects the local unit to end the year closer to US70Â¢.
"The key assumption for this forecast is that we will see one or two rises by the US Federal Reserve. It looks less likely that we'll get one in   September so the US dollar may be more attractive for longer but it's a question of 'if' rather than 'when' now," he said.
Though US economic data continues to be strong, recent global market volatility may delay the rate rise.
According to a Bloomberg survey of analysts, expectations of a rate rise in   September is at 38 per cent, rising to almost 50 per cent in   October and up to more than 80 per cent in 2016.
In the shorter term, Mr de Garis said the dollar could succumb to some volatility on Tuesday with the release of the official Chinese purchasing managers index.