The dollar was mixed versus other major currencies on Tuesday, staying under pressure against its major European rivals amid signs of progress in dealing with the region's sovereign debt crisis.
Spain sold EUR 2.51 billion short-term debt amid lower yield and higher demand, reports said. The Spanish Treasury had set a target range of EUR 1.5 billion and EUR 2.5 billion for the combined sale of 3-month and 6-month Treasury bills.
Finance ministers were meeting in Brussels to discuss a fiscal compact between euro area members.
Reports out of Europe suggested the Bank of England is preparing another round of quantitative easing, but the sterling was little changed after recent gains versus the dollar.
Riskier currencies were also lifted by expectations for strong earnings results from the plethora of big companies reporting today.
The Federal Open Market Committee is scheduled to begin a 2-day meeting to discuss the near term direction of monetary policy. The monetary policy-setting arm of the Federal Reserve is set to release a post-meeting policy statement at 12:30 pm ET on Wednesday followed by a press briefing by Chairman Ben Bernanke at 2:15 pm ET.
The Richmond Federal Reserve's manufacturing index due for release at 10 am ET is expected to show an improvement to 6 in January from 3 in December. President Barrack Obama is scheduled to deliver the annual State of the Union Address to a joint session of Congress, followed by a Republican rebuttal delivered by Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels at 9 pm ET.
Looking at today's currency charts, the dollar slipped to $1.3050 versus the euro, its lowest since the first week of January. 11 days ago the buck was at a 17-month peak of $1.2623.
The dollar was stuck near is 3-week low around $1.56 versus the sterling, but edged higher to Y77.50 against the yen a fter the Bank of Japan lowered the economic growth forecast for 2012.
The central bank warned of risks stemming from the European debt crisis and the strong yen, while retaining the main policy rate near zero.
Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said that the timing of Japan's recovery has been delayed somewhat due to a slowdown in global economic growth and a strong yen.
For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com