Investing.com - The dollar pushed higher against the other major currencies on Wednesday, despite the release of weak U.S. existing home sales data as sentiment on the greenback continued to strengthen ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s highly anticipated speech on Friday.
EUR/USD dropped 0.51% to 1.1248.
The U.S. National Association of Realtors said existing home sales decreased by 3.2% in July to 5.39 million units from the 5.57 million units in June. The consensus forecast was for a 0.4% decline to 5.51 million units.
Markets were jittery as investors wait to see if Yellen will restate the hawkish view of the economy expressed by Fed officials last week or echo the minutes of the Fed’s July meeting, which indicated that officials are divided on when to raise rates.
GBP/USD gained 0.36% to trade at 1.3244, the highest since August 4.
USD/JPY rose 0.21% to 100.46, while USD/CHF climbed 0.48% to 0.9679.
The Australian dollar was steady, with AUD/USD at 0.7614 and with NZD/USD added 0.25% to 0.7308.
Markets shrugged off a report by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showing that construction work done declined by 3.7% in the second quarter, disappointing expectations for a 1.9% fall.
Construction work done slipped 0.3% in the first quarter, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated 2.6% drop.
Also Wednesday, Statistics New Zealand said the country’s trade balance swung into a deficit of NZ$433 million in July from a surplus of NZ$127 million the previous month. Analysts had expected the trade balance to fall into a deficit of NZ$350 million last month.
Elsewhere, USD/CAD rose 0.23% to trade at 1.2942.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.33% at 94.82.