Dollar Firms Against Major Counterparts
(RTTNews) - The U.S. dollar firmed against most of its major counterparts on Tuesday as traders looked ahead to the Jackson Hole Symposium, scheduled to take place later in the week.
Several bankers are scheduled to take part in the meeting. Fed Chair Jerome Powell will speak on Friday. Powell's comments will be closely scrutinized for signals on the central bank's interest rate plans in the near future.
A report released by the National Association of Realtors showed existing home sales in the U.S. slumped by much more than expected in the month of July.
NAR said existing home sales tumbled by 2.2% to an annual rate of 4.07 million in July after plunging by 3.3% to an annual rate of 4.16 million in June. Economists had expected existing home sales to edge down to an annual rate of 4.15 million.
Existing home sales decreased for the fourth time in the past five months, falling to their lowest annual rate since hitting 4.00 million in January.
The dollar index climbed to 103.72 earlier in the day. The index gave up some gains subsequently and was at 103.59 a little while ago, gaining about 0.28%.
Against the Euro, the dollar has strengthened to 1.0850 from 1.0896. The dollar is up against Pound Sterling at 1.2736, gaining from 1.2756.
The Japanese currency is firm against the dollar at 145.86 yen, gaining from 146.22 yen a dollar. Against the Aussie, the dollar is weak at 0.6423, and against Swiss franc it has firmed to fetch CHF 0.8806 a unit, compared to CHF 0.8785 a unit on Monday.
The dollar is up marginally against the loonie at $1.3554.
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