On Wednesday the dollar was broadly lower versus its peers, as growing uncertainty over the timing of a
U.S. rate hike weighed on the greenback and investors eyed upcoming data
on U.S. home sales.
Investors pushed back expectations for higher U.S. interest rates after a recent run of downbeat economic data dampened hopes for the US economic recovery, also pressing lower the sentiment on the greenback.
Market players expect the U.S. to release data on existing home sales later in the trading session.
EUR/USD rose 0.46% to 1.0786 even as the Greek government was no closer to reaching an agreement with its euro zone partners and the International Monetary Fund over economic reforms required to access remaining bailout funds, fuelling fears that the country could be forced out of the euro zone.
The pound was also higher, with GBP/USD advancing 0.65% to 1.5028. The local currency found support after the minutes of the Bank of England's latest monetary policy meeting showed that policymakers voted nine to zero in favor of keeping rates unchanged at a record low 0.5%, but the decision remained "finely balanced" for two officials.
While the regulator said it still expects that inflation could turn negative in the next couple of months, it noted that the stronger pound could have had a more rapid than expected effect on inflation, indicating that inflation could recover more strongly when temporary downward pressures on prices eased.
The buck was lower against the yen and the Swiss franc, with USD/JPY down 0.21% to 119.41 and with USD/CHF declining 0.33% to 0.9517.
The Aussie was sharply higher, with AUD/USD rallying 1.14% to 0.7798 after the Australian Bureau of Statistics said that consumer prices rose 0.2% in the first quarter, in line with expectations and after a 0.2% uptick in the three months to December.
Australian consumer prices rose 1.3% year-on-year in the three months to March, in line with market expectations and after an increase of 1.7% in the last quarter of 2014. Another report showed that Australia's reduced mean consumer price index, which excludes the most volatile 30% of items, rose at an annualized rate of 2.3% in the first quarter, surpassing expectations for a 2.2% increase.
