US dollar slips against major currencies

The U.S. dollar slipped against most of major currencies on Tuesday on speculations that the Federal Reserve may continue the current monetary easing policies. The dollar dropped to a seven-week high against the euro after Chicago Fed Bank President Charles Evans said the U.S. economy still needs monetary stimulus measures, and New York Fed President William Dudley said slowdown in employment growth in March indicated the need to maintain the current bond-purchasing scale. In addition, strong U.S. housing data released on Tuesday eased investors' concerns and demand for safe-haven assets decreased. New residential construction in March jumped 7.0 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,036,000, the U.S. Commerce Department reported. The figure was much higher than analysts' forecast. Meanwhile, the U.S. Consumer Price Index dropped 0.2 percent in March, indicative of eased inflation pressures, the Labor Department said Tuesday. The softened inflation pressure left room for continuous monetary easing policies and dragged the dollar down. In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.3191 dollars from 1.3040 dollars of the previous session and the British pound climbed to 1.5370 dollars from 1.5276 dollars. The Australian dollar increased to 1.0381 dollars from 1.0323 dollars. The dollar bought 97.43 Japanese yen, lower than 97.28 in the previous session. It edged down to 0.9214 Swiss francs from 0.9321 Swiss francs and went down to 1.0213 Canadian dollars from 1.0245 Canadian dollars of the previous trading day.