US dollar declines ahead of Fed statement

The US dollar dropped against most major currencies on Tuesday as investors were awaiting the closely-watched Federal Reserve statement due out Wednesday.

In late New York trading, the euro fell to $1.0986 from $1.0993 of the previous session, and the British pound rose to $1.3143 from $1.3125, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Australian dollar went up to $0.7507 from $0.7469.

The dollar bought 104.70 Japanese yen, lower than 105.78 yen of the previous session.

The dollar climbed to 0.9926 Swiss francs from 0.9860 Swiss francs, and it inched down to 1.3202 Canadian dollars from 1.3223 Canadian dollars.

The US central bank kicked off a two-day monetary meeting on Tuesday. Investors expected to get more clues of the pace of Fed's rate-hike decisions in its after-meeting statement on Wednesday.

Analysts said although market participants don't see the Fed officials raising interest-rate this time, recent positive economic data has bolstered overall speculation for a rate-hike by year-end.

Meanwhile, the greenback dipped more than 1 percent against Japanese yen on Tuesday as investors dialed back expectations of how much new stimulus the Bank of Japan will implement later this week.

The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against six major peers, was down 0.13 per cent at 97.160 in late trading.

--IANS

pgh/