By Clare Connaghan
The dollar is mixed Wednesday in subdued trading with participants refraining from putting on any big bets ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee's October minutes and U.S. data releases, including retail sales, due later.
The greenback edged down against the pound and yen, but was up slightly against the euro, as participants awaited key data releases, which will give the latest assessment of the U.S. economic recovery. October's advance retail sales and the consumer price index reading are both due for release Wednesday at 1330 GMT, while existing home sales data for October will be published at 1500 GMT.
"Foreign exchange was largely directionless with most players happy on the sidelines ahead of today's big U.S. data day," said Sue Trinh, a senior currency strategist at RBC Capital Markets.
Traders will also scrutinize the FOMC's October minutes, published at 1900 GMT, for hints on the timing of any scaling back of the central bank's $85 billion-a-month asset purchases.
"Besides timing of Fed tapering, the minutes could give some important insight into the support within the Fed for possible strengthening of the forward guidance for interest rates," said Arne Lohmann Rasmussen, chief analyst at Danske Bank.
In other news, the pound is up slightly against the dollar, shrugging off minutes from the Bank of England's November meeting, which revealed concern among the Monetary Policy Committee about the strength of the U.K.'s economic recovery.
Elsewhere, the Australian dollar was down around 0.3% against the buck on the day ahead of a speech Thursday from Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Glenn Stevens to the Australian Business Economists conference on the topic of "The Australian Dollar: Thirty Years of Floating."
