On Tuesday the greenback remained underpinned against its major counterparts, as Chinese GDP data failed to boost investor confidence and as markets expected the European Central Bank's upcoming policy statement on Thursday.
The U.S. dollar index, measuring the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.14% to 92.98, close to Friday's 12-year peak of 93.56.
EUR/USD slid 0.11% to 1.1591, not far from Friday's 11-year lows of 1.1459.
The ZEW index of German economic sentiment rose to an 11-month high of 48.4 in January from 34.9 in December, ahead of forecasts of 40.0. The report spurred hopes that Germany’s economy, the euro zone’s largest would rebound in 2015 after weakening at the end of last year. However, euro showed little reaction to it. Sentiment on the single currency remained vulnerable.
The ZEW survey of euro zone economic sentiment increased to a six-month high of 45.2 from 31.8 in December, beating forecasts of 37.6.
USD/JPY climbed 0.74% to a one-week high of 118.45. The Japanese currency dampened after data on Tuesday showed that economic growth in China remained steady in the fourth quarter.
China’s economy expanded at an annual rate of 7.3% in the three months to December. Analysts had expected growth in the world’s second-largest economy to slow to 7.2% from 7.3% in the third quarter. China’s economy slowed to 1.5% from 1.9% in the third quarter on a quarter-over-quarter basis, compared to forecasts for 1.7%.
Elsewhere, GBP/USD gained 0.31% to 1.5158, off nearly 18-month lows of 1.5058 hit overnight, while USD/CHF slid 0.64% to trade at 0.8735.
The commodity-exposed Aussie, Kiwi and Loonie were broadly lower. AUD/USD edged down 0.15% to 0.8198 and NZD/USD dropped 0.80% to 0.7720, even as the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research earlier reported that its business confidence index rose to 23 in the fourth quarter from a reading of 19 in the three months to September. USD/CAD rose 0.33% to trade at 1.1990, still hovering within striking distance of a more than five-year high of 1.2046.
