Investing.com - The U.S. dollar was little changed on Monday in Asia as investors remained cautious ahead of the highly-anticipated U.S. Federal Reserve meeting later this week.
The U.S. Dollar Index that tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies last traded at 96.925 by 12:30 AM ET (05:30 GMT), up 0.02%.
The Fed is widely expected to deliver a quarter-point interest rate hike at its meeting on Wednesday, while a post-policy meeting press conference by Fed Chair Jerome Powell would also be closely watched. Concerns about the outlook for global growth along with trade tensions and market volatility have prompted traders to push back expectations on the expected pace of Fed rate hikes in 2019.
Elsewhere, the Japanese yen slipped against the dollar as the USD/JPY pair gained 0.12% to 113.52. The Bank of Japan is expected to keep monetary policy unchanged when it makes its policy announcement on Thursday.
The GBP/USD pair was flat at 1.2581. Reports from last week said British Prime Minister Theresa May’s failure to win key concessions from the European Union to salvage her Brexit deal has added to concerns over the prospect of a ‘no-deal’ exit from the EU.
Meanwhile, the USD/CNY pair lost 0.12% to 6.9000 as the People's Bank of China (PBOC) set the yuan reference rate at 6.8908 vs Friday's fix of 6.8750.
Goldman Sachs said in a note on Monday that China’s exchange rate could get more volatile in time as the country pushes greater international use of the yuan.