WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - With traders looking ahead to Wednesday's monetary policy decision by the Federal Reserve, the U.S. dollar has moved modestly lower on Tuesday.
The U.S. dollar is trading at 111.38 yen compared to the 111.65 yen it fetched at the close of New York trading on Monday. Against the euro, the dollar is valued at $1.1216 compared to yesterday's $1.1186.
The Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, although traders are likely to keep a close eye on the accompanying statement and Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's subsequent press conference.
A day ahead of the Fed announcement, President Donald Trump urged the central bank to slash interest rates by as much as a full percentage point.
'Our Federal Reserve has incessantly lifted interest rates, even though inflation is very low, and instituted a very big dose of quantitative tightening,' Trump said in a post on Twitter.
He added, 'We have the potential to go up like a rocket if we did some lowering of rates, like one point, and some quantitative easing.'
Some analysts accused the Fed of capitulating to Trump's demands by revealing after its last meeting that officials no longer expect to raise rates this year.
Meanwhile, traders largely shrugged off some upbeat U.S. economic data, with reports showing bigger than expected rebounds in consumer confidence and pending home sales.
The Conference Board said its consumer confidence jumped to 129.2 in April after falling to 124.2 in March. Economists had expected the index to rise to 127.0.
'Consumer Confidence partially rebounded in April, following March's decline, but still remains below levels seen last Fall,' said Lynn Franco, Senior Director of Economic Indicators at the Conference Board.
A separate report from the National Association of Realtors showed its pending home sales index surged up by 3.8 percent to 105.8 in March after slumping by 1 percent to 101.9 in February. Economists had expected pending home sales to jump by 1.1 percent.
A pending home sale is one in which a contract was signed but not yet closed. Normally, it takes four to six weeks to close a contracted sale.
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