Investing.com – The dollar fell against a basket of major currencies on Wednesday as mixed economic reports on consumer confidence and pending homes sales did little to lift sentiment on the greenback.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, fell 0.26% to 92.60.
Pending home sales were mostly unchanged in November, rising by 0.2% month-on-month, according to the National Association of Realtors. That topped expectations for a 0.4% decline.
"The housing market is closing the year on a stronger note than earlier this summer, backed by solid job creation and an economy that has kicked into a higher gear," Lawrence Yun, chief economist at NAR, said.
The Conference Board’s consumer confidence gauge fell to 122.1 in December from a revised reading of 128.6 in November, missing economists' forecast for a reading of 128.
Analysts downplayed the softer consumer confidence report on Wednesday as RBC said that the “internals were constructive” for the near term, pointing to a bullish present situation metric – an important indicator for consumption trends.
Also weighing on the dollar was a move higher in the euro, to a three-week high above $1.19.
GBP/USD rose 0.18% to $1.3399, while USD/CAD fell 0.39% to C$1.2638 as the latter struggled to pare losses despite the oil-price sensitive Canadian dollar coming under pressure amid falling oil prices.
USD/JPY rose 0.05% to Y113.29.