Investing.com - The dollar remained higher against other major currencies in subdued trade on Wednesday, hovering at a one-week high as investors awaited the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s latest policy meeting amid growing expectations for a March rate hike.
EUR/USD fell 0.24% to 1.0512, the lowest since January 11.
The greenback had strengthened after Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester said late Monday that she would be “comfortable” raising interest rates at this point as inflation pressures pick up.
However, Minneapolis Fed head Neel Kashkari on Tuesday said the U.S. labor market has "more room to run," indicating that he does not believe the central bank should raise rates quickly.
The comments came after Fed Chair Janet Yellen said last week that a rate increase would be appropriate at one of the Fed’s forthcoming meetings.
Investors were eyeing the minutes from the Fed’s January meeting, due later Wednesday, for further indications on the pace of rate hikes.
Elsewhere, GBP/USD slipped 0.20% to 1.2445 after the U.K. Office for National Statistics said that gross domestic product expanded by 0.7% in the fourth quarter, compared to expectations for an unrevised of 0.6%.
Year-over-year however, the U.K. economy grew 2.0% in the three months ended December 31, missing expectations for it to remain unrevised at 2.2%.
USD/JPY declined 0.55% to 113.05, while USD/CHF gained 0.30% to trade at 1.0125.
The Australian and New Zealand dollars were steady, with AUD/USD at 0.7679 and with NZD/USD at 0.7162.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics earlier reported that construction work done fell 0.2% in the fourth quarter, compared to expectations for a 0.3% rise.
Data also showed that the wage price index increased by 0.5% in the last quarter, in line with expectations.
Meanwhile, USD/CAD rose 0.39% to trade at 1.3193, the highest since February 8.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.15% at 101.60, the highest since February 15.