Investing.com - The dollar remained broadly lower against the other major currencies on Monday, even as data showed that U.S. new home sales fell less than expected last month, as the Federal Reserve’s latest policy decision continued to weigh on the greenback.
The U.S. Commerce Department said new home sales declined by 7.6% to 609,000 units last month, compared to expectations for a drop of 8.8% to 600,000.
New home sales in July were revised up to 659,000 units from a previously reported 654,000 units.
Meanwhile, markets were still recovering from the Fed’s decision to leave interest rates unchanged at the conclusion of its policy meeting last Wednesday, although it hinted that a hike could come in December if the job market continued to improve.
USD/JPY dropped 0.50% to 100.47.
The yen strengthened after Bank of Japan Haruhiko Kuroda said the central bank remained ready to use every available tool to achieve its 2% inflation target, including additional stimulus measures.
The BOJ made an unexpected shift last week to targeting interest rates on government bonds.
EUR/USD added 0.27% to trade at 1.1256.
The euro found some support after the German research institute Ifo said its Business Climate Index rose to 109.5 this month, the highest level since July 2014, from a reading of 106.3 in August, above forecasts for 106.4.
The pound wa steady near Friday’s six-week low of 1.2912, with GBP/USD at 1.2963, while USD/CHF fell 0.32% to 0.9679.
The Australian and New Zealand dollars turned higher, with AUD/USD up 0.29% at 0.7644 and with NZD/USD gaining 0.29% to 0.7265.
Statistics New Zealand said over the weekend that the trade deficit widened to NZ$1,265 million in August from NZ$433 million the previous month.
Analysts had expected the trade deficit to widen to NZ$766 million last month.
Elsewhere, USD/CAD was little changed at 1.3162, off highs of 1.3201 hit earlier in the session.
Sentiment on the commodity-related loonie was fragile as the world's largest oil producers gathered in Algeria to discuss ways to support the market.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was down 0.24% at 95.18.
Market participants were also looking ahead to the highly-anticipated U.S. Presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, scheduled on Monday evening.