US dollar slips against major currencies

The U.S. dollar retreated against most major currencies Tuesday, and the greenback slipped sharply against the yen as the Bank of Japan kept monetary policy steady. The Japanese central bank on Tuesday ended a two-day monetary policy meeting and decided not to take further steps expand monetary stimulus. It also failed to take additional measures to address bond volatility. The Japanese benchmark Nikkei 225 fell nearly 1.5 percent Tuesday. The dollar plunged more than 3 percent against the yen in the session. Japan revised up its first-quarter annualized economic growth to 4.1 percent Monday, much higher than the preliminary estimate of 3.5 percent. The euro strengthened against the dollar for the second straight day while Germany's constitutional court started a two- day hearing on the legality of the European Central Bank's assets purchasing program. The Australian dollar was the only currency that fell against the U.S. dollar among the latter's six major trading currencies. It dropped to the lowest in three years versus the U.S. dollar after data showed home-loan approvals grew at the slowest pace in three months. On the U.S. economic front, wholesale inventories, a key component of gross domestic product changes, advanced 0.2 percent in April, which was in consistent with market expectations. In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.3307 dollars from 1.3262 dollars of the previous session and the British pound climbed to 1.5641 dollars from 1.5584 dollars. The Australian dollar slipped to 0.9443 dollars from 0.9475 dollars. The dollar bought 96.14 Japanese yen, lower than 98.71 yen of the previous session. It edged down to 0.9245 Swiss francs from 0. 9328 Swiss francs and stayed flat at 1.0192 Canadian dollars.