Investing.com - The dollar trimmed gains against the other major currencies on Wednesday, after the release of positive U.S. data on durable goods orders, as markets remained mostly focused on a highly-anticipated meeting between major oil producers.
The U.S. Commerce Department said that durable goods orders remained unchanged last month, tcompared to expectations for a 1.4% decline. July’s orders were revised down to show an increase of 3.6% from a previously reported 4.4% gain.
Core durable goods orders, which exclude volatile transportation items, dropped 0.4% last month, in line with forecasts.
Meanwhile, hopes for a potential oil production freeze were still crushed following reports on Tuesday that differences between Saudi Arabia and Iran remained too wide to achieve a deal this week.
However, investors were looking to see what comes out of Wednesday’s meeting to measure the odds for a deal at the official OPEC meeting on November 30.
EUR/USD held steady at 1.1226.
USD/JPY edged up 0.17% to 100.61.
The pound edged lower, with GBP/USD down 0.09% to 1.3012, while USD/CHF was little changed at 0.9703.
The Australian dollar was steady, with AUD/USD at 0.7665, while NZD/USD declined 0.75% to 0.7248.
Elsewhere, USD/CAD added 0.14% to trade at 1.3220, just off the previous session’s six-month high of 1.3281.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was steady at 95.39.