NEW YORK, May 30 (Xinhua) — The U.S. dollar weakened on Tuesday as traders awaited the debt ceiling vote in Congress.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, fell 0.10 percent to 104.1665 in late trade.
Although some progress was made on a deal, some Republicans said they would resist the deal in the Republican-dominated House.
In addition to the debt negotiations, the market has again focused on inflation.
The U.S. consumer confidence index in May fell to 102.3 from 103.7 in April, but higher than the consensus forecast of 100, according to data from The Conference Board on Tuesday.
“Consumer confidence fell in May as consumers’ view of current conditions became slightly less positive while their expectations remained gloomy,” said Ataman Ozyildirim, senior director of economics at The Conference Board.
The report showed that Americans’ inflation expectations remain high but steady at 6.1 percent on average over the next 12 months.
High inflation probably won’t go away quickly unless a sharper downturn in the U.S. economy fades, Thomas Barkin, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, said on Tuesday.
“It’s going to be more stubborn than a lot of people hope. There’s a lot of uncertainty about where interest rates have to go,” Barkin said, though he called the current rate level “restrictive.”
The euro managed to bounce back from multi-week lows despite disappointing eurozone economic sentiment for May, which fell to 96.5 from 99 in April.
In late New York trading, the euro rose to $1.0719 from $1.0709 in the previous session, and the British pound was up at $1.2392 from $1.2357 in the previous session.
The US dollar bought 139.8380 Japanese yen, down from 140.3940 Japanese yen from the previous session. The US dollar rose to 0.9062 Swiss francs from 0.9041 Swiss francs and it rose to 1.3602 Canadian dollars from 1.3593 Canadian dollars. The US dollar rose to SEK 10.8802 from SEK 10.8185.
Source: sn.dk