US dollar edges up amid Federal Reserve meeting

The US dollar strengthened modestly against its major rivals in late trading on Tuesday amid the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting.

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the US central bank's policy-setting panel, began its two-day meeting on Tuesday.

In late New York trading, the euro was down to $1.1194 from $1.1217 in the previous session, and the British pound increased to $1.2560 from $1.2537 in the previous session. The Australian dollar was up to $0.6874 from $0.6851, Xinhua reported.

The US dollar bought 108.44 Japanese yen, lower than 108.57 Japanese yen of the previous session. The US dollar increased to 1.0000 Swiss franc from 0.9987 Swiss franc, and it was down to 1.3382 Canadian dollars from 1.3415 Canadian dollars.

Market participants are waiting for the FOMC's decision and economic projections, set to be announced on Wednesday. Investors will look for clues about potential rate cuts later this year.

As of Tuesday afternoon, traders were pricing in a probability of 24.2 per cent on a rate cut in June, while the bet on monetary easing at FOMC's next meeting in July was more than 85 per cent, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was up 0.08 per cent at 97.6414 in late trading.

--IANS

pgh/