Investing.com - The dollar pared gains against a basket of other major currencies in subdued trade on Monday, after the greenback mildly recovered from Friday's downbeat U.S. data and as markets began to focus on the Federal Reserve's policy statement due on Wednesday.
The dollar had come under pressure after the Commerce Department reported Friday that orders for durable goods, excluding aircraft, fell 0.5% in March, after a downwardly revised 2.2% drop in February.
The headline figure rose 4.0%, beating expectations for a 0.6% gain, but investors focused on underlying weakness in the report.
The data came after recent weak reports on home sales, retail sales and industrial production, adding to signs of a slowdown in economic growth since the start of the year.
The weak data led investors to push back expectations on the timing of an initial rate hike by the Federal Reserve.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was steady at 97.13.
EUR/USD was steady at 1.0869, off lows of 1.0820 hit earlier in the session.
The single currency remained under pressure after euro area finance ministers said Friday that Greece must present a full economic reform plan by early May in order to access any further funding.
GBP/USD pulled away from session lows of 1.5107 to settle at 1.5178, steady for the day.
The Confederation of British Industry earlier reported that its index of industrial order expectations increased by 1.0 point to a reading of 1.0 this month from March’s reading of 0.0. Analysts had expected the index to rise by 4.0 point to 4.0 in April.
Elsewhere, the dollar was higher against the yen, with USD/JPY up 0.21% to 119.23 and steady against the Swiss franc, with USD/CHF at 0.9546.
The Australian and New Zealand dollars turned higher, with AUD/USD gaining 0.40% to 0.7854 and NZD/USD climbing 0.49% to 0.7632.
Meanwhile, USD/CAD declined 0.62% to trade at 1.2101.