The dollar remained broadly lower against the other major currencies on Wednesday, as sentiment on the greenback was fragile ahead of the Federal Reserve’s highly-anticipated policy statement due later in the day.
The dollar was steady against the yen, with USD/JPY at 120.44.
The Fed was not expected to raise interest rates later Wednesday, but many investors still expected the U.S. central bank to signal that rates could still rise at its December meeting.
Data on Tuesday showing that a key measure of U.S. business investment plans fell for a second straight month in September curtailed expectations for higher interest rates.
Orders for nondefense capital goods excluding aircraft, a proxy for company spending on equipment, fell 0.3% in September after a 1.6% decline in August.
Another report showed that U.S. consumer confidence declined this month.
Earlier Wednesday, the Mortgage Bankers Association said their mortgage market index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, declined by 3.5% in the week ending October 23 to 417.4. That follows a gain of 11.8% to 432.7 in the preceding week.
EUR/USD rose 0.26% to trade at 1.1073.
Elsewhere, the dollar was lower against the pound and the Swiss franc, with GBP/USD adding 0.20% to 1.5329 and with USD/CHF sliding 0.30% to 0.9836.
The Australian and New Zealand dollars were weaker, with AUD/USD down 0.73% at 0.7137 and with NZD/USD retreating 0.56% to 0.6725.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported on Wednesday that the consumer price index rose 0.5% in the third quarter, disappointing expectations for a 0.6% gain and after an increase of 0.7% in the three months to June.
Year-on-year, consumer prices rose 1.5% in the last quarter, below expectations for a 1.7% rise.
Meanwhile, USD/CAD tumbled 0.94% to trade at 1.3144.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was down 0.37% at 96.66, pulling away from Friday’s two-month highs of 97.30
Source: Investing.com
