WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The greenback, which stayed mostly steady near a one-month high before the release of the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meeting, continued to stay that way post release of the minutes as well.
Worries about a slowdown in China and eurozone and continued uncertainty over Brexit supported the dollar.
After falling to a low of 97.89 from a high of 98.12, the dollar index regained some lost ground and was last seen hovering around 98.10, gaining marginally over previous close.
Disappointing U.K. core inflation data and continued uncertainty about Brexit pushed the British Pound Sterling to its lowest level in about five months against the greenback.
The sterling weakened to $1.2625 before recovering to $1.2663, still down in the red with a loss of about 0.33%.
UK consumer price inflation accelerated in April, while output price inflation eased slightly, figures from the Office for National Statistics revealed Wednesday.
Consumer price inflation rose to 2.1% in April from 1.9% in March. Nonetheless, this was slightly slower than the forecast of 2.2%.
Month-on-month, consumer prices gained 0.6% versus expected rate of 0.7%.
Retail price inflation advanced to 3% from 2.4% a month ago.
Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Theresa May is finding opposition to her leadership hardening as her latest Brexit plan too appears to be failing.
May is set to outline changes to the Withdrawal Agreement Bill - including a promise to give MPs a vote on holding another referendum. Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer has reportedly termed the offer 'too weak'.
The euro shed about 0.7% at $1.1155, with the latter recovering from a low of $1.1183.
The Japanese yen fared well against the greenback and strengthened to 110.24 before retreating slightly to 110.33, still holding in positive territory with a modest gain.
The dollar gained against the loonie with the dollar-loonie pair trading at 1.3431, up nearly 0.2% from previous close.
Against the Aussie, the dollar was up marginally at 0.6882, while it lost 0.14% against Swiss franc with the dollar/franc trading at 1.0097.
The minutes of the latest Federal Reserve meeting suggested the central bank is in no rush to alter the path of interest rates.
The minutes showed members agreed that a patient approach to determining future adjustments to rates would likely remain appropriate for 'some time.'
Citing an environment of moderate U.S. economic growth and muted inflation pressures, the Fed expects to remain patient even if global economic and financial conditions continued to improve.
The fed left interest rates unchanged after the meeting that ended on May 1st, citing uncertainties that affected the U.S. and global economic outlooks.
Worries about U.S.-China trade dispute have increased after a report from the South China Morning Post said China is re-examining the entire bilateral economic relationship between the U.S. and China.
Reports that the Trump administration is looking to blacklist more Chinese companies and a recent comment by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin that U.S. has no plans to go to Beijing to resume trade negotiations have added to fears that the trade dispute between the world's two largest economies is unlikely to end anytime soon.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
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