US dollar falls ahead of Fed statement

The US dollar decreased against most major currencies on Tuesday as investors were awaiting the closely-watched Federal Reserve statement due out later this week.

The Fed will announce its latest rate decision when it concludes a two-day meeting on Wednesday. The U.S. central bank is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged after a mixed bag of economic data and recent volatility in financial markets.

On the U.S. economic front, new orders for manufactured durable goods in March increased 1.8 billion dollars or 0.8 percent to 230.7 billion dollars, missing market consensus of a 1.6-percent gain, reported the U.S. Labor Department Tuesday.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was down 0.29 percent at 94.569 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.1289 dollars from 1.1268 dollars of the previous session, and the British pound climbed to 1.4579 dollars from 1.4483 dollars. The Australian dollar went down to 0.7740 dollars from 0.7709 dollars.

The dollar bought 111.33 Japanese yen, higher than 111.26 yen of the previous session. The dollar dropped to 0.9742 Swiss francs from 0.9752 Swiss francs, and it inched down to 1.2621 Canadian dollars from 1.2689 Canadian dollars.