BZ: Dollar broadly lower vs. rivals as Fed FOMC eyed
Forex Pros – The U.S. dollar was broadly lower against its major counterparts on Wednesday, after a call for spending cuts by U.S. President Barack Obama underlined expectations that the Federal Reserve would keep policy unchanged.
During European afternoon trade, the greenback was down against the euro, with EUR/USD rising 0.09% to hit 1.3693.
Later Wednesday, the Federal Reserve was to convene its first monetary policy meeting of the year. The U.S. central bank was widely expected hold short-term interest rates near zero and say it remained committed to its USD600 billion bond purchase program.
The greenback was also down against sterling with GBP/USD climbing 0.26% to hit 1.5858.
Earlier in the day, the minutes from the January meeting of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee showed policy makers considered a rate increase.
Elsewhere, the greenback was down against the yen but up against the Swiss franc, with USD/JPY slipping 0.08% to hit 82.17 and USD/CHF easing up 0.07% to hit 0.943.
Meanwhile, the greenback was down against its Canadian and Australian counterparts but up against its New Zealand cousin, with USD/CAD sliding 0.09% to hit 0.9957, AUD/USD easing up 0.08% to hit 0.9973 and NZD/USD sliding 0.17% to hit 0.7673.
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was down 0.07%.
Also Wednesday, the U.S. was to publish official data on new home sales.
