The U.S. dollar dropped slightly against most major currencies Tuesday as investors awaited Federal Reserve's minutes of its latest policy meeting due out Wednesday.
Investors will pay close attention to the Fed's minutes of its latest policy meeting and try to find more clues of when the Fed will begin to hike interest rates and analysts believe the dollar is unlikely to rise further without signal of lifting interest rates in 2015 from the Fed.
The greenback has almost pared the gains from last week after report showed that U.S. economy added much more jobs than forecast in June, raising speculation that the Fed may lift interest rate earlier than expected, but Fed Chair Janet Yellen said last week that it does not need to raise interest rates to improve financial stability.
U.S. nonfarm payroll employment increased by 288,000 in June, the Labor Department reported last week. The fresh data was much higher than economists' expectations. The unemployment rate unexpectedly declined from 6.3 percent to 6.1 percent in June, the department added.
Alcoa will release its quarterly earnings report after the closing bell Tuesday, which is viewed by many as the start of the new earnings season. Investors will also keep an eye on the earning season. '
In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.3612 dollars from 1.3607 dollars of the previous session, and the British pound decreased to 1.7130 dollars from 1.7131 dollars. The Australian dollar slipped to 0.9399 dollars from 0.9372 dollars.
The dollar bought 101.54 Japanese yen, lower than 101.86 yen of the previous session. The dollar went down to 0.8929 Swiss francs from 0.8932 Swiss francs, and it moved up to 1.0676 Canadian dollars from 1.0675 Canadian dollars.