The U.S. central bank kicked off its two-day monetary policy meeting Tuesday and will release a statement on Wednesday, Xinhua reported.
It is widely expected that the Fed will leave interest rates unchanged at this meeting amid the recent weakness in oil prices.
However, investors will scrutinize the central bank's statement for clues about the economic environment and the future path of tightening.
On the economic front, U.S. consumer confidence came in positive. The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index now stands at 98.1 in January, up from 96.3 in December and above market consensus of 96.0.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major currencies, was down 0.27 percent at 99.093 in late trading.
In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.0849 U.S. dollars from 1.0837 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound increased to 1.4359 dollars from 1.4259 U.S. dollars in the previous session.
The Australian dollar edged up to 0.7014 U.S. dollar from 0.6972 dollar. The U.S. dollar bought 118.48 Japanese yen, lower than 118.49 yen of the previous session. The greenback increased to 1.0180 Swiss francs from 1.0155 Swiss francs, and it decreased to 1.4081 Canadian dollars from 1.4238 Canadian dollars. (T.A026)
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