Investing.com - The U.S. dollar moved higher against its major counterparts in Asian trade Thursday, following the Federal Reserve Bank’s decision to leave interest rates untouched and institute a USD400 billion debt-swap program.
In mid-day Asian trade, the greenback was higher against the euro, with EUR/USD falling 0.11% to hit 1.3560.
At the conclusion of its two-day Federal Open Market Committee Meeting Wednesday, the U.S. Federal Reserve said it would be replacing a portion of the short-term debt in its portfolio with longer-term Treasuries in a move known as “Operation Twist.”
The projected USD400 billion debt-swap was highly anticipated by the market and was expected to relieve the Fed from the need to resume additional money creation steps.
The Fed voted to leave its benchmark interest rate at near zero through the middle of 2013, a rate that has been in place since December of 2008.
Elsewhere, the National Association of Realtors reported Wednesday that sales of existing homes in the U.S. rose by 7.7% to a seasonally adjusted 5.03 million units in August, well above market expectations of a 1.7% gain.
Wall Street investors appeared largely unimpressed by the Fed’s announcement, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 2.49%, the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 2.01%, and the S&P 500 slumped 2.94% by the end of Wednesday trade.
Meanwhile, the greenback was higher against the British pound, with GBP/USD down 0.15% to hit 1.5474.
The dollar was lower higher against both the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc with USD/JPY adding 0.39% to hit 76.77, and USD/CHF up by 0.04% to hit 0.9004.
The greenback was higher against its Canadian, Australian and New Zealand counterparts with USD/CAD up 0.16% to hit 1.0093, AUD/USD lower by 0.32% to hit 1.0011, and NZD/USD falling 0.61% to hit 0.7963.
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was up 0.28% at 78.64.
The U.S. Department of Labor was due to release weekly figures on initial jobless claims later Thursday.