WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The U.S. dollar fared reasonably well against some of its peers on Wednesday even as it extended its weakness against the British currency.
Dovish comments by the Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell took more shine off the greenback earlier in the session. However, the currency recovered and gained in strength as the day progressed to score decent gains against most of its rivals.
The dollar index gained about 0.16% to 96.15.
The British Pound Sterling added to its recent gains, rising to $1.3351 before retreating a bit. Still, at $1.3306, it was up by over 0.4% from previous close.
The British currency has been gaining ground amid rising possibility of a delay to the Brexit deadline. It may be recalled that the British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Tuesday that lawmakers would be able to vote to delay Brexit in the event of her deal getting rejected in a March 12 vote.
Against the Euro, the dollar was trading at 1.1373, gaining about 0.11%, on weak eurozone economic data.
Survey results from the European Commission showed that eurozone economic sentiment deteriorated for a sixth consecutive month and at a faster than expected pace in February. The economic sentiment indicator fell to 105.3 from 106.2 in January. Economists had expected a reading of 106.
The industrial confidence index dropped to -0.2 from 0.7 and the score was worse than the 0.1 economists had predicted. The services confidence measure eased to 7.1 from 8.4 in January, much below an expected reading of 11.
The consumer confidence index edged up to -7.2 from -7.8 in January. The reading was better than the -7.4 flash estimate. Meanwhile, the business climate index showed a score of 0.69 in February, which was unchanged from January.
The greenback was gaining against the Japanese yen, with a dollar fetching 111 yen, up from previous close of 110.58 yen a dollar.
The dollar was up against Swiss Franc as well, with a unit of greenback getting CHF 1.0012, up 0.13% over previous close of CHF0.9999.
The dollar was down against the Canadian currency loonie, easing by about 0.08% at $1.3154. The AUD/USD pair was trading at 0.7138, losing about 0.6%.
On the U.S. economic front, the National Association of Realtors released a report that showed pending home sales index spiked by 4.6% to 103.2 in January after tumbling by 2.3% to a downwardly revised 98.7 in December. Economists had expected pending home sales to rise by 0.4%.
Meanwhile, a government shutdown-delayed report released by the Commerce Department showed new orders for manufactured goods rose by much less than anticipated in the month of December.
The Commerce Department said factory orders inched up by 0.1% in December after falling by a revised 0.5% in November. Economists had expected orders to climb by 0.5%.
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