US $ up against major currencies

The U.S. dollar advanced against major currencies on Wednesday. The dollar snapped a two-day drop against Japanese yen on speculations that Japan's central bank would further ease monetary policy and raise inflation goal. Wall Street ushered in the fourth-quarter company earnings season this week, with analysts expecting the results to outperform earlier predictions. Alcoa, the world's third largest aluminum producer, said Tuesday that its fourth-quarter revenue was 5.9 billion dollars, better than the 5.6-billion-dollar market expectations. The European Central Bank will hold its policy meeting on Thursday and analysts were closely watching the bank's interest rates decision and comments from ECB President Mario Draghi after the meeting. The dollar resumed rising against the yen after two days of decline after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told central bank governor Masaaki Shirakawa he wanted the central bank to double its inflation goal to 2 percent. The Bank of Japan will have a policy meeting on Jan. 21 to Jan. 22. In late New York trading, the euro dropped to 1.3054 dollars from 1.3083 dollars of the previous session and the British pound slipped to 1.6016 dollars from 1.6059. The dollar slightly climbed to 0.9260 Swiss francs from 0.9239 and went up to 0.9878 Canadian dollars from 0.9871. The dollar bought 87.76 Japanese yen, higher than 87.2 in the previous session.