U.S. Dollar Seeing Modest Weakness Ahead Of Fed Minutes

(RTTNews) - After edging lower during trading on Monday, the U.S. dollar has shown another modest move to the downside on Tuesday.

The U.S. dollar index has climbed off its worst levels of the day but remains down 0.23 points or 0.2 percent at 104.06.

The greenback is trading at 150.03 yen versus the 150.13 yen it fetched on Monday. Against the euro, the dollar is trading at $1.0808 compared to yesterday's $1.0779.

The modest weakness in the value of the dollar comes as traders look ahead to the release of the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meeting on Wednesday.

"The minutes of the Federal Reserve's January Federal Open Market Committee meeting may clarify how much more 'good data' the Fed's policymakers want to see before starting to reduce interest rates," said Bill Adams, Chief Economist for Comerica Bank.

He added, "Chair Powell said at the press conference following the January decision that he saw a March cut as unlikely, but was uncharacteristically vague about exactly what the Fed's preconditions for cuts are; this suggests FOMC members still disagree about the issue."

Ahead of the release of the minutes, CME Group's FedWatch is currently indicating just an 8.5 percent chance the Fed will lower rates by a quarter point in March.

In U.S. economic news, the Conference Board released a report showing its reading on leading U.S. economic indicators fell by slightly more than expected in the month of January.

The report said the Conference Board's leading economic index fell by 0.4 percent in January after dipping by a revised 0.2 percent in December.

Economists had expected the index to decrease by 0.3 percent compared to the 0.1 percent dip originally reported for the previous month.