Forex - Dollar mostly higher after Bernanke, Beige Book

Investing.com - The U.S. dollar traded higher against most of its major rivals during Thursday’s Asian session following supportive comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and a solid Beige Book report out during Wednesday trade in the U.S.

In Asian trading Thursday, EUR/USD inched fell 0.06% to 1.3119 after the Fed’s Beige Book business survey, which encompasses the central bank’s 12 regional banks, showed manufacturing expanded in most regions since the last report. The report showed modest growth across 11 districts with Dallas showing strong growth.

Earlier Wednesday, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said the pace of the central bank’s bond purchases are not a “preset course” In prepared remarks released before his testimony to Congress later in the day, Fed Chair Bernanke said the pace of the central bank’s bond purchases are not a “preset course”.

"I emphasize that, because our asset purchases depend on economic and financial developments, they are by no means on a preset course," Bernanke said.

USD/GBP was flat at 1.5215 as sterling cooled against the dollar after the minutes of the Bank of England’s July meeting showed that policymakers voted unanimously to keep the bank’s quantitative easing program unchanged.

Two policymakers who had previously voted in favor of more stimulus said it remained "warranted".

USD/JPY rose 0.06% to 99.64 after the minutes of the Bank of Japan’s June meeting said the economy was expected to return to a moderate recovery path and reiterated that the bank’s easing program would remain in place for as long as necessary.

USD/CHF inched up 0.03% to 0.9414 while USD/CAD nudged down 0.02% to 1.04007. In other economic news out Wednesday, the Commerce Department said U.S. housing starts fell 9.9% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 836,000 unit in June, the lowest reading since August 2012. Analysts expected starts to rise to 959,000 units. Bad weather was cited as one of the reasons for the slack reading.

AUD/USD fell 0.21% to 0.9222 while NZD/USD shed 0.15% to 0.7896. The U.S. Dollar Index nudged up 0.05% to 82.82.