Dollar gains as end to Fed stimulus program seen drawing near

Investing.com - The dollar traded higher against most major currencies on Tuesday as investors took up fresh positions assuming the Federal Reserve will close its bond-buying program in October and hike rates in 2015, while monetary policy will stay loose in Europe and in Japan.

In U.S. trading on Tuesday, EUR/USD was down 0.43% at 1.2632.

Expectations for U.S. monetary policy to grow less accommodative at a time when others may move to loosen bolstered the greenback on the last day of the third quarter.

The Federal Reserve will hold its next monetary policy meeting at the end of October, and markets expect the U.S. central bank to end its monthly bond-buying program then, which should open the door to tighter policy down the road.

Expectations for Europe and Japan to keep policy loose also boosted the greenback.

Eurostat, the statistics arm of the European Union, reported earlier that the euro area's annual inflation rate fell to a five-year low of 0.3% in September from 0.4% in August.

Core inflation, which strips out food, energy, alcohol and tobacco costs, came in at 0.7%, down from 0.9% in August.

Slumping consumer prices fueled market expectations for the European Central Bank to implement fresh stimulus measures to stave off the threat of deflation in the region after the bank unexpectedly cut rates to record lows last month.

A separate report showed that the euro zone’s unemployment rate was unchanged at 11.5% in August.

Meanwhile back in the U.S., the Conference Board reported earlier that its consumer confidence index fell to 86.0 this month from 93.4 in August, whose figure was revised up from a previously reported 92.4.

Analysts expected the index to decline to 92.5 in September.

A separate report showed that a Chicago-area purchasing managers' index fell to 60.5 this month from 64.3 in August. Analysts had expected the index to decline to 61.9 in September.

Investors shrugged off the data, as despite hiccups here and there, longer-term analysis of U.S. indicators points to an economy that is gaining steam.

The dollar was up against the yen, with USD/JPY up 0.16% at 109.67, and up against the Swiss franc, with USD/CHF up 0.35% at 0.9546.

The Bank of Japan will meet next week to discuss monetary policy, and the yen weakened as investors began to jump to the sidelines ahead of time.

The greenback was up against the pound, with GBP/USD down 0.20% at 1.6209.

The dollar was mixed against its cousins in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, with USD/CAD up 0.35% at 1.1201, AUD/USD up 0.37% at 0.8752 and NZD/USD up 0.44% at 0.7798.

The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was up 0.34% at 86.03.

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On Wednesday, the U.S. is to release the ADP report on private sector job creation, which leads the government’s nonfarm payrolls report by two days. Later in the session, the Institute of Supply Management is to release a report on manufacturing activity.