Investing.com - The dollar was on the back foot on Thursday after the minutes from the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting tempered some more hawkish rate hike expectations, while the euro re-approached six-and-a-half month highs.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, dipped 0.1% to 96.86 by 07.33 GMT.
Fed officials agreed they should hold off on raising interest rates until it was clear a recent U.S. economic slowdown was temporary, though most said a hike was coming soon, minutes from their last policy meeting showed on Wednesday.
The minutes did little to alter investors’ expectations for a June rate hike but indicated a greater degree of caution among officials towards future rate hikes.
The dollar has already come under pressure in the past week as expectations for fiscal stimulus under the Trump administration have faded amid political turmoil in Washington.
EUR/USD was up 0.19% at 1.1240, climbing back towards the six-and-a-half month peak of 1.1268 set on Tuesday.
The dollar was higher against the yen, with USD/JPY rising 0.33% to 111.86, closing back in on the one-week high of 112.130 scaled the previous day.
The dollar was lower against the Swiss franc, with USD/CHF sliding 0.14% to 0.9714, not far from Monday’s seven-month trough of 0.9691.
Sterling edged higher, with GBP/USD inching up 0.12% to 1.2985 ahead of revised data on UK first quarter growth, which was expected to confirm that the economy expanded by a modest 0.3% in the three months to March.
Meanwhile, the Australian and New Zealand dollars were lower, with AUD/USD down 0.28% at 0.7484 and NZD/USD losing 0.3% to trade at 0.7027.