U.S. dollar pressured lower by Fed minutes

Fed officials were divided in July on the timing of an interest rate hike this year, with some urging a move soon given the economy's strong labor market and others preferring to wait until inflation moves toward their target, minutes of the central bank's latest meeting released on Wednesday showed.

“Several participants saw recent economic developments as indicating that labor market conditions were at or close to those consistent with maximum employment and judged that recent progress toward the Committee's inflation goal was likely to continue, even with further gradual reduction in the pace of monetary policy accommodation,” the minutes said.

The minutes also showed that “a few favored delaying further increases in the federal funds rate until they were more confident that inflation was moving closer to 2 percent on a sustained basis.”

“Participants generally agreed that, before taking another step in removing policy accommodation, it would be prudent to gather additional data to assess the underlying momentum in the labor market and in economic activity,” the minutes said.

Analysts said the minutes failed to offer any clear signal on the Fed's next move, which weighed on the greenback on Wednesday.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major currencies, was down more than 0.14 percent at 94.660 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.1291 dollars from 1.1275 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound increased to 1.3056 dollars from 1.3036 dollars. The Australian dollar fell to 0.7647 dollar from 0.7698 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 100.21 Japanese yen, lower than 100.26 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar fell to 0.9618 Swiss franc from 0.9621 Swiss franc, and it inched up to 1.2848 Canadian dollars from 1.2844 Canadian dollars, Xinhua reported. (T.A026)

Editor: Ruslan Burhani

http://www.antaranews.com/berita/579329/dolar-as-melemah-tertekan-rilis-risalah-pertemuan-fed