By Sarah Turner, MarketWatch
SYDNEY (MarketWatch) — The U.S. dollar edged fractionally higher in Asian trading hours Wednesday, with the Federal Reserve set to wrap up its two-day policy meeting later in the global trading day.
The dollar index DXY -0.12% , which measures the greenback against a basket of six other currencies, traded at 82.696, up from 82.619 in late North American trading Tuesday.
The Fed was due to conclude its meeting later Wednesday and economists expected the U.S. central bank to pledge to keep interest rates low for longer. Read Fed preview.
However, “if the Fed opens the door even wider to a third round of quantitative easing (QE), the U.S. dollar will find little solace from a lack of QE today, as the Fed will merely be seen to delay such a move until September,” said Credit Agricole strategists.
“Combined with the impact of firmer risk appetite over recent days, and consequently reduced safe-haven demand, the U.S. dollar will struggle to make any headway in the near term,” said strategists at Credit Agricole.
The euro EURUSD +0.06% eased to $1.2301, from $1.2311 late Tuesday, while the British pound GBPUSD -0.02% fell to $1.5665 from $1.5682.
The Japanese yen USDJPY -0.01% rose modestly as the dollar traded at ¥78.09, down slightly from ¥78.18 in late trading on Tuesday.
The Australian dollar AUDUSD +0.02% slipped to $1.0499, from $1.0514 late Tuesday. Read more on Australian dollar.
The WSJ dollar index XX:BUXX -0.05% , a recently launched gauge of the dollar’s performance against other heavily traded major currencies, rose to 71.70, up from 71.65 on Tuesday.
Sarah Turner is MarketWatch's bureau chief in Sydney.
