Investing.com - The dollar fell to the lowest in three weeks against a basket of major currencies on Wednesday ahead of the release of Federal Reserve minutes later in the session.
USD/JPY dipped 0.03% to 101.78, not far from Tuesday’s one-month lows of 101.54.
The yen remained stronger after the Bank of Japan indicated Tuesday that it was unlikely to implement further stimulus measures in the short term.
BoJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said the economy can weather a sales tax increase without further monetary policy measures to offset it. He added that growth and inflation were likely to continue to pick up in the coming months.
The dollar remained under pressure ahead of the minutes of the Fed’s March meeting due out later in the trading day, after last week’s U.S. payrolls report came in slightly below expectations.
Fed Chair Janet Yellen said recently that slack in labor markets showed accommodative policies will still be needed for some time.
Elsewhere, EUR/USD rose 0.20% to 1.3822, the strongest since March 26.
The single currency continued to remain supported as recent comments by senior European Central Bank officials indicated that there is no urgent need for quantitative easing to stave off the threat of deflation in the region.
The pound was steady close to one-month highs against the dollar, with GBP/USD edging up 0.06% to 1.6757.
Sterling showed little reaction after data on Wednesday showed that the U.K. trade deficit narrowed more-than-expected in February, as both imports and exports fell.
The dollar was also weaker against the Swiss franc, with USD/CHFdown 0.20% to 0.8808.
The Australian dollar remained supported close to four-and-half month highs, with AUD/USD edging up 0.06% to 0.9362. Earlier Wednesday, official data earlier showed that home loans in Australia rose 2.3% in February, beating expectations for a 2% increase.
NZD/USD was trading not far from two-and-a-half year highs, slipping 0.13% to 0.8662, while USD/CAD lost 0.22% to trade at 1.0899.
The US Dollar Index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was down 0.16% to 79.73, the weakest since March 19.