The U.S. dollar rose against other major currencies in late trading on Wednesday, as investors pondered over the newly-released minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve's September meeting.
The minutes released in the afternoon showed that the central bank remains convinced it needs to tighten monetary policy to keep the economy steady.
"Participants generally anticipated that further gradual increases in the target range for the federal funds rate would most likely be consistent with a sustained economic expansion, strong labor market conditions and inflation near 2 percent over the medium term," said the minutes.
"The Fed is intent to continue raising rates, but the fed funds rate is now entering more uncertain territory where it can no longer be characterized as necessarily accommodative. The implication is future rate decisions will be based on incoming data," said Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial.
On the economic front, U.S. privately-owned housing starts in September were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,201,000, the Commerce Department announced Wednesday.
This is 5.3 percent below the revised August estimate of 1,268,000, but is 3.7 percent above the September 2017 rate of 1,158,000.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, increased 0.55 percent at 95.5746 in late trading.
In late New York trading, the euro decreased to 1.1506 dollars from 1.1577 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound fell to 1.3121 dollars from 1.3191 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar was down to 0.7116 dollar from 0.7138 dollar.
The U.S. dollar bought 112.48 Japanese yen, higher than 112.18 Japanese yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar was up to 0.9949 Swiss franc from 0.9899 Swiss franc, and it increased to 1.3012 Canadian dollars from 1.2938 Canadian dollars.
The minutes released in the afternoon showed that the central bank remains convinced it needs to tighten monetary policy to keep the economy steady.
"Participants generally anticipated that further gradual increases in the target range for the federal funds rate would most likely be consistent with a sustained economic expansion, strong labor market conditions and inflation near 2 percent over the medium term," said the minutes.
"The Fed is intent to continue raising rates, but the fed funds rate is now entering more uncertain territory where it can no longer be characterized as necessarily accommodative. The implication is future rate decisions will be based on incoming data," said Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial.
On the economic front, U.S. privately-owned housing starts in September were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,201,000, the Commerce Department announced Wednesday.
This is 5.3 percent below the revised August estimate of 1,268,000, but is 3.7 percent above the September 2017 rate of 1,158,000.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, increased 0.55 percent at 95.5746 in late trading.
In late New York trading, the euro decreased to 1.1506 dollars from 1.1577 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound fell to 1.3121 dollars from 1.3191 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar was down to 0.7116 dollar from 0.7138 dollar.
The U.S. dollar bought 112.48 Japanese yen, higher than 112.18 Japanese yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar was up to 0.9949 Swiss franc from 0.9899 Swiss franc, and it increased to 1.3012 Canadian dollars from 1.2938 Canadian dollars.
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