Summary Dollar was little changed Tuesday as the Federal Reserve began a policy meeting.
NEW YORK (AFP) - The dollar was little changed Tuesday as the Federal Reserve began a policy meeting, expected to end the asset-purchase stimulus program and stay the course on near-zero interest rates.
Economists and traders widely anticipate that the central bank s Federal Open Market Committee, in a post-meeting statement Wednesday, will end its six-year-old quantitative easing program, which last December stood at $85 million a month in asset purchases and has been progressively trimmed.
The FOMC has signaled the October meeting would be the end of QE, depending on economic data, which though mixed has been generally positive for the moderately growing US economy.
The policymakers have also suggested the first hike in the federal funds rate, pegged at a range of zero to 0.25 percent since late 2008, could come in mid-2015, and most analysts said they did not expect the FOMC statement will alter that outlook.
"The arrival of a two-day meeting of America s central bank had the greenback on a steady overall footing. Overall market confidence was positive, helping the greenback gain against the yen," said Joe Manimbo, senior market analyst at Western Union Business Solutions.
Elsewhere in the forex market, Sweden s krona tumbled to a four-year low against the dollar after the Swedish central bank cut its base interest rate a quarter of a percentage point to a record low of zero, in an effort to push up low inflation bordering on deflation.
