U.S. Dollar Seeing Modest Weakness As Fed Announcement Looms

(RTTNews) - The value of the U.S. dollar has edged lower during trading on Tuesday, extending the see-saw pattern seen over the past several days.

After moving modestly higher on Monday, the U.S. dollar index has dipped 0.19 points or 0.2 percent to 103.42.

Meanwhile, the greenback is trading at 147.61 yen compared to the 147.50 yen it fetched at the close of New York trading on Monday. Against the euro, the dollar is valued at $1.0846 compared to yesterday's $1.0833.

The modest decrease in the value of the dollar comes as traders look ahead to the Federal Reserve's highly anticipated monetary policy announcement on Wednesday.

The Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, but the accompanying statement could have a significant impact on the outlook for rates.

Optimism about a March rate cut has faded recently, with many economists now suggesting the Fed will wait until May to begin lowering rates.

On the U.S. economic front, Labor Department released a report this morning showing an unexpected increase in job openings in the month of December.

The Labor Department said job openings rose to 9.03 million in December from an upwardly revised 8.93 million in November. Economists had expected job openings to dip to 8.75 million in December from the 8.79 million originally reported for the previous month.

A separate report released by the Conference Board showed a continued improvement in U.S. consumer confidence in the month of January.

The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index jumped to 114.8 in January from a downwardly revised 108.0 in December. Economists had expected the consumer confidence index to climb to 114.0 from the 110.7 originally reported for the previous month.

The consumer confidence index increased for the third consecutive month, reaching its highest level since December 2021.