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Tuesday 20 August 2013

Forex - Dollar falls as market awaits fresh Fed cue, data weigh


The dollar traded lower against most major currencies on Tuesday as investors continued to avoid greenback ahead of the release of the Federal Reserve's minutes from its July policy meeting on Wednesday.

Investors hope the report will provide clues on the fate of stimulus tools such as the Fed's USD85 billion monthly bond-buying program that weakens the dollar to spur recovery. 

In U.S. trading on Monday, EUR/USD was up 0.62% at 1.3418.

Hit-or-miss economic indicators over the past several weeks have fueled uncertainty as to when the Fed will announce plans to scale back stimulus tools, with solid dating prompting investors to trade on a September start to tapering and weaker data sparking others to bet on a December start date.

Trading was quiet on Tuesday, as most investors remained camped out in other currency positions or were active in the stock market that saw decent gains after a 4-day losing streak.

Elsewhere, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s national activity index for July came in at -0.15 from a revised -0.23 in June, though the number came in much worse than market expectations for a -0.10.

The data weakened the dollar by keeping expectations alive for many that the Federal Reserve will begin tapering stimulus tools in December as opposed to September.

The greenback, meanwhile, was down against the pound, with GBP/USDup 0.16% at 1.5674.

The dollar was down against the yen, with USD/JPY down 0.31% at 97.27, and down against the Swiss franc, with USD/CHF trading down 0.75% at 0.9172.

The dollar was up against its cousins in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, with USD/CAD up 0.38% at 1.0385, AUD/USD down 0.23% at 0.9093 and NZD/USD trading down 0.99% at 0.7988.

The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was down 0.42% at 80.94.

On Wednesday, markets will move on the release of the minutes from the Fed's July policy meeting.

Elsewhere, the U.S. will release industry data on existing home sales. 

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