Investing.com - The dollar edged higher against the other major currencies on Wednesday, but investors were still cautious ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s highly anticipated speech on Friday.
EUR/USD slipped 0.22% to 1.1281.
Markets were jittery as investors wait to see if Yellen will restate the hawkish view of the economy expressed by Fed officials last week or echo the minutes of the Fed’s July meeting, which indicated that officials are divided on when to raise rates.
The greenback remained mildly supported after data on Tuesday showed that U.S. new home sales jumped by 12.4% to 654,000 units last month, compared to expectations for a 2.0% decline.
GBP/USD added 0.19% to trade at 1.3220, the highest since August 4.
USD/JPY eased 0.08% to 100.17, while USD/CHF was little changed at 0.9639.
The Australian and New Zealand dollars were stronger, with AUD/USD up 0.16% at 0.7627 and with NZD/USD climbing 0.47% to 0.7323.
Markets shrugged off a report by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showing that construction work done declined by 3.7% in the second quarter, disappointing expectations for a 1.9% fall.
Construction work done slipped 0.3% in the first quarter, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated 2.6% drop.
Also Wednesday, Statistics New Zealand said the country’s trade balance swung into a deficit of NZ$433 million in July from a surplus of NZ$127 million the previous month. Analysts had expected the trade balance to fall into a deficit of NZ$350 million last month.
Elsewhere, USD/CAD held steady at 1.2913.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.11% at 94.61.