Investing.com - The U.S. dollar remained weaker against the yen on Wednesday after easing measures by the Bank of Japan fell short of market expectations but edged lower against the euro following Tuesday’s upbeat German economic sentiment data.
During European late morning trade, the dollar was lower against the yen, with USD/JPY dropping 0.41% to 89.33.
The BoJ said Tuesday that was adopting a 2% inflation target and agreed to an “open-ended” commitment to asset purchases beginning next year, following political pressure from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government to step up efforts to combat deflation.
The greenback slid lower against the euro, with EUR/USD easing up 0.12% to 1.3336.
The euro remained supported after data on Tuesday showed that the ZEW index of German economic sentiment improved to its highest level since May 2012 this month as concerns over the crisis in the euro zone eased.
The greenback pulled away from five-month lows against the pound, with GBP/USD up 0.12% to 1.5856 after official data showed that the number of people claiming unemployment benefits in the U.K. fell to the lowest level since June 2011 in December.
Meanwhile, the minutes of the Bank of England’s January meeting showed that some monetary policy committee members were more certain that further easing was unnecessary.
But sentiment on sterling remained fragile after British Prime Minister David Cameron pledged to hold a referendum on the U.K.’s European Union membership before the end of 2017.
The greenback edged lower against the Swiss franc, with USD/CHF edging down 0.10% to 0.9282.
The Swiss franc was little changed after the ZEW index of economic sentiment in Switzerland improved to minus 6.9 in December, the highest level in eight months.
The greenback was mixed against its Canadian, Australian and New Zealand counterparts, with USD/CAD dipping 0.06% to 0.9913, AUD/USD slipping 0.09% to 1.0556 and NZD/USD rising 0.16% to 0.8421.
The Australian dollar weakened amid growing expectations for a rate cut by the Reserve Bank of Australia after official data showed that consumer inflation rose 0.2% in in the fourth quarter, below expectations for a 0.4% increase.
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was down 0.17% to 79.81.
Republican leaders in the House of Representatives were to hold a vote later Wednesday to grant an almost four-month extension of the U.S. debt limit, to give Congress time to pass a federal budget.
