Dollar retreats ahead of major economic data
New York (Dec 4) The U.S. dollar retreated against major currencies on Tuesday after rising across the board in the previous session.
Investors hesitated to make big bets ahead of U.S. Labor Department's November non-farm payroll report due out Friday and the Commerce Department's release of the revised figure of the third-quarter gross domestic product slated for Thursday.
As Fed officials have said they may scale back the bond-buying program "in coming months" as economy improves, investors will be keeping a close eye on the two major data to seek more clues about Fed's future plans.
The euro advanced to a nearly one-month high against the dollar as investors awaited the European Central Bank's next monetary policy meeting on Thursday.
In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.3591 dollars from 1.3539 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound increased to 1.6401 dollars from 1.6347 dollars. The Australian dollar climbed to 0.9138 dollar from 0.9100 dollar.
The dollar bought 102.35 Japanese yen, lower than 103.08 yen of the previous session. The dollar moved down to 0.9046 Swiss franc from 0.9086 Swiss franc and it went down to 1.0649 Canadian dollars from 1.0635 Canadian dollars.
In the previous session, the U.S. dollar advanced against major currencies. It rose to the highest level in more than six months versus the yen after Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said on Monday that the central bank will keep monetary policy accommodative until inflation is stable at 2 percent.
