SYDNEY, July 30 (Reuters) - The Australian dollar was trying to break a four-week losing streak on Friday as U.S. economic data fell short of the market's high expectations and forced a round of speculative short covering.

The Aussie inched up to $0.7384 and away from its July trough of $0.7290, giving a gain of almost 0.5% for the week. The technical background remains fragile, however, and the currency needs to clear resistance at $0.7415 and $0.7487 to find safer footing.

The New Zealand dollar was ahead by 0.3% for the week at $0.6996, and well above its July low of $0.6882. It faces stiff resistance at $0.7015 and $0.7050.

Both benefited when figures showed the U.S. economy grew strongly last quarter but not as strongly as investors had wagered on, taking some heat out of the dollar's recent rally.

Domestic data was also upbeat as Australian lending outstripped all expectations with the biggest monthly increase since January 2008.

Total credit outstanding surged 0.9% in June led by a 1.6% jump in business loans, itself the largest increase since 2007.

In New Zealand, approvals to build new homes climbed 3.8% in June to a fresh record high, underlining the ongoing construction boom as robust demand pushes prices ever higher.

Unfortunately for the Aussie, the local economy's remarkable recovery has now come unstuck as Sydney faces an extended coronavirus lockdown that is almost certain to cause a sharp contraction this quarter.

This has fuelled speculation the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will sound very dovish at its August policy meeting next week and even delay plans to taper bond buying.

"Markets have firmly swung behind the RBA scrapping the planned September taper, keeping the weekly QE pace at A$5 billion in response to the indefinite and tighter Sydney lockdown," said Westpac FX analyst Sean Callow.

He noted the talk had already helped drive Australian 10-year bond yields down a steep 33 basis points this month to 1.18%. That put them 6 basis points below U.S. Treasury yields, after starting the month 4 basis points above.

"As a result, we prefer selling Aussie in the low $0.74s and buying in the high $0.72s," said Callow. (Editing by Sam Holmes)