US Dollar Declines Against Major Rivals After Economic Reports

The US dollar traded lower against major currencies following the release of some economic reports during New York mid-day trading on Tuesday. According to a report released by the U.S. Commerce Department today, the housing starts fell 5.9 percent to an annual rate of 575,000 in February from the revised January estimate of 611,000. Economists had expected housing starts to fall to 570,000 from the 591,000 originally reported for the previous month.

Additionally, the Commerce Department said that building permits, an indicator of future housing demand, fell by 1.6 percent to annual rate of 612,000 in February from the revised January rate of 622,000.

A report released by the U.S. Labor Department today showed that import prices fell by 0.3 percent in February after rising by 1.3 percent in January. The modest decrease was largely due to a 1.9 percent drop in fuel import prices, which pulled back after surging up by 4.9 percent in the previous month.

The Labor Department also said that export prices fell by 0.5 percent after increasing by 0.7 percent in the previous month. A notable 3.8 percent drop in the prices of agricultural exports contributed to the decrease.

Extending previous session downtrend, the greenback declined further against the Swiss franc in New York mid-day deals today. At 11:00 am ET, the greenback dropped to a new multi-week low of 1.0548 versus the franc, compared to Monday's close of 1.0621.

Against the euro, the dollar ticked down in today's New York deals and dropped to 1.3772 at about 11:00 am ET. The pair that closes yesterday's New York session at 1.3679, is now trading near 1.3749.

The US currency also plunged against the Canadian dollar in North American session today. At 12:20 pm ET, the greenback slipped to a new multi-month low of 1.0143 versus the loonie, which may be compared to yesterday's close of 1.0195.

The interest-rate setting committee of the Federal Reserve holds a one-day meeting today in which the central bank is widely expected to repeat its promise to keep borrowing costs exceptionally low for "an extended period". The Fed is due to announce its decision at 2:15 pm ET.

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