Investing.com - The greenback inched up on Tuesday, despite confidence among U.S. consumers falling to a one-and-a-half-year low in January.
The Conference Board’s consumer confidence fell to its lowest level since July 2017, as the government shutdown decreased optimism.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a basket of six major currencies, rose 0.09% to 95.507 as of 11:07 AM ET (16:07 GMT).
“Shock events such as government shutdowns (i.e. 2013) tend to have sharp, but temporary, impacts on consumer confidence. Thus, it appears that this month’s decline is more the result of a temporary shock than a precursor to a significant slowdown in the coming months,” Lynn Franco, director of economic indicators at The Conference Board, said.
Investors are looking ahead to the upcoming Federal Reserve policy announcement on Wednesday, where the central bank is expected to adopt a more cautious stance on monetary policy amid fears of economic slowdown at home and abroad.
Meanwhile, the pound slipped as the UK Parliament is expected to vote on a series of votes on Brexit amendments starting at 2:00 PM ET (19:00 GMT).
Britain is set to leave the European Union on March 29, but the country's members of parliament remain far from agreeing a divorce deal, after the overwhelming rejection of Prime Minister Teresa’s May’s Brexit plan earlier this month.
GBP/USD fell 0.08% to 1.3149.
Elsewhere, the euro dipped with EUR/USD slipping 0.11% to 1.1419.
The risk sensitive Australian and New Zealand dollars were mostly lower, with AUD/USD falling 0.22% to 0.7148 and NZD/USD flat at 0.6831.