The U.S. dollar ended higher against most major currencies on Tuesday as investors expected the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates as soon as this month.
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen on Friday signaled that an interest rate hike in this month's monetary policy will likely be appropriate, if the economy progresses in line with officials' expectation.
Yellen's comments came after several Fed policymakers expressed similar support for a rate-hike in the near future last week.
The Fed is scheduled to hold its next monetary policy meeting on March 14 and 15. Market expectations for a March rate hike were around 84 percent, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was up 0.17 percent at 101.810 in late trading.
On the economic front, the U.S. Commerce Department announced Tuesday that the goods and services deficit was 48.5 billion U.S. dollars in January, up 4.2 billion dollars from 44.3 billion dollars in December, revised.
In late New York trading, the euro fell to 1.0567 dollars from 1.0584 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound dropped to 1.2200 dollars from 1.2237 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar increased to 0.7589 U.S. dollar from 0.7583 U.S. dollar. The U.S. dollar bought 114.05 Japanese yen, higher than 113.95 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar climbed to 1.0139 Swiss francs from 1.0120 Swiss francs, and it edged up to 1.3421 Canadian dollars from 1.3414 Canadian dollars.
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