Investing.com - The dollar edged lower against the other major currencies on Thursday, as the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s March meeting confirmed the central bank’s cautious stance on raising interest rates.
USD/JPY tumbled 1.54% to a fresh 17-month low of 108.08.
Released on Wednesday, the minutes from the Fed's March policy meeting indicate that the central bank is unlikely to raise interest rates before June due to concerns over global economic growth.
The minutes showed that "a number" of policymakers believe that headwinds to growth will probably persist and that many urged caution about raising rates.
Meanwhile, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said on Thursday that that he will “undertake additional monetary easing” if needed, either by increasing the central bank’s asset purchases or by lowering its deposit rate further below zero, or both.
EUR/USD was little changed at 1.1400.
Earlier Thursday, European Central Bank vice president Vitor Constancio said that Europe continued to face challenges and that the euro zone monetary authority will do whatever was needed to comply with its price stability mandate.
Investors were looking ahead to the minutes of the ECB’s lastes policy meeting for further indications on the central bank’s next policy moves.
Meanwhile, the dollar was higher against the pound, with GBP/USD down 0.47% at 1.40562 and was steady against the Swiss franc with USD/CHF at 0.9556.
In the U.K., data earlier showed that the Halifax house price index rose by 2.6% in March, beating expectationd for a 0.7% gain. House prices dropped 1.5% in February, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated 1.4% decline.
The Australian and New Zealand dollars were weaker, with AUD/USD down 0.62% at 0.7550 and with NZD/USD shedding 0.28% to 0.6808.
Elsewhere, USD/CAD eased up 0.11% to trade at 1.3107.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was down 0.15% at 94.36, just off a fresh five-and-a-half month low of 94.03 hit overnight.