Forex - Greenback mixed on conflicting data

Investing.com - The U.S. dollar traded mixed against its major rivals Wednesday, following the release of a series of U.S. economic data, while new worries over the sovereign debt crisis continued to linger.

During U.S. morning trade, the dollar was almost unchanged against the euro, with EUR/USD moving higher by 0.15% to 1.3067.

Sentiment on the euro remained fragile after reports surfaced that some German lawmakers are seeking to water down proposals for a European banking union and supervision of euro zone banks by the European Central Bank.

Dow Jones Newswires reported that the German government not only wants a strict separation of bank supervision and monetary policy in Europe, but also favors a separate bank-supervision body that would give large countries more votes.

Investor confidence had also weakened following reports earlier in the week that Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy remains uncertain about asking for help from the European Central Bank's new bond-purchasing program, which would mean signing up to a permanent bailout fund.

The greenback was higher against the pound, with GBP/USD slipping 0.15% to 1.6220.

The minuntes of the Bank of England's August meeting showed earlier that policymakers voted 9 to zero in favor of leaving U.K. interest rates unchanged at 0.5% and also agreed to leave the quantitative easing program unchanged at GBP375 billion.

Elsewhere, the greenback was lower against the yen and the Swiss franc, with USD/JPY dropping 0.55% to hit 78.38, and with USD/CHF edging down 0.19% to trade at 0.9267.

Earlier in the day, the Bank of Japan boosted the size of its monthly bond purchases by JPY10 trillion to a total of JPY80 trillion and left its policy interest-rate target unchanged in the current range of zero to 0.1%.

The JPY10 trillion increase in the asset-purchase program will be split equally towards additional purchases of treasury discount bills and Japanese government bonds, the central bank said in a statement.

In addition, the greenback was mixed against its Canadian, Australian and New Zealand counterparts, with USD/CAD adding 0.14% to 0.9755, AUD/USD inching 0.08% higher to 1.0465 and NZD/USD rising 0.14% to hit 0.8283.

The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was down 0.15%, to trade at 79.15.

In the U.S., the National Association of Realtors said that existing home sales rose by 7.8% to a seasonally adjusted 4.82 million units in August, easily surpassing expectations for a 2% increase to 4.55 million units.

The report came after official data showed that U.S. housing starts rose by 2.3% in August to a seasonally adjusted 0.750 million, below expectations for a 2.85 increase to 0.765 million.

The report also showed that the number of building permits issued in August fell 1% to a seasonally adjusted 0.803 million, compared to expectations for a decline of 1.8% to 0.796 million.