U.S. dollar ticks up as Fed meeting begins

NEW YORK, July 25 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar was almost flat on Tuesday as the Federal Open Market Committee meeting began.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, rose 0.06 percent to 101.4045 in late trading.

The U.S. house price index continued to rise to 404.1 in May, according to figures released by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) on Tuesday. Monthly house prices increased by 0.7 percent from the previous month.

"U.S. house prices increased moderately in May, continuing the trend of the last few months," said Nataliya Polkovnichenko, supervisory economist in FHFA's Division of Research and Statistics. "However, house prices in some regions of the country remained below the levels seen one year ago."

Meanwhile, the Conference Board reported on Tuesday that its consumer confidence index rose to 117 in July from 110.1 in June, which beat economists' expectation and reached the highest level since July 2021.

Since the one-year consumer inflation expectations fell from 6.0 percent to 5.7 percent, the U.S. dollar index did not show a significant response to the strong consumer confidence data upon its release.

The attention now shifts towards the Fed announcement on Wednesday. Fed policymakers are expected to raise the benchmark interest rates again Wednesday to the highest level in 22 years.

In late New York trading, the euro was down to 1.1045 U.S. dollars from 1.1071 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound rose to 1.2892 U.S. dollars from 1.2824 dollars.

The U.S. dollar bought 141.0230 Japanese yen, lower than 141.4370 Japanese yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar decreased to 0.8646 Swiss francs from 0.8681 Swiss francs, and it was up to 1.3167 Canadian dollars from 1.3166 Canadian dollars. The U.S. dollar was down to 10.3802 Swedish krona from 10.4154 Swedish krona.