The greenback was mostly lower Wednesday against its rivals, eyeing a second down day in a row and being lower in particular versus the pound.
The decline was caused by short-term investors selling the strengthening dollar to lock in profits, currency strategists say.
The ICE U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s performance against six major rivals, was last down less than 0.1% to 97.314 after dropping 0.7% in the previous session. It still has a solid year-to-date gain, up 7.8%.
Colin Cieszynski, chief market strategist at CMC Markets, said in a note that the index “has been knocked back down toward 97.40 after running into resistance near 98.35 but remains in an uptrend, with initial support possible near 97.00.”
The euro gained 0.1% against the dollar to trade at 1.0936, while the pound rose 0.35% to $1.5611.
USD/JPY was last at 123.80 lower 0.07%.
Market players now look ahead to a U.S. existing-home sales report due on Wednesday
at 10 a.m. Eastern, as well as a U.S. new-home sales report due on
Friday.
In the commodities market, metals extended their losses with gold for April delivery dropping $10.60, or 1%, to $1,092.90 an
ounce, setting it on course for its lowest closing level since March
2010.
Silver for September delivery lost 11 cents, or 0.8%, to $14.67 an ounce, while high grade copper for the same month fell 4 cents, or 1.6%, to $2.44 a pound.
October platinum fell $14.30, or 1.5%, to $970 an ounce.
September palladium lost $10.40, or 1.7%, to $619.05 an ounce.
