1st LD Writethru: U.S. dollar rises on Fed statement

The U.S. dollar climbed against most major currencies Wednesday as the Federal Reserve announced it would keep "patient" in raising interest rates and stressed that American economy has been expanding solidly.

In a statement released after a two-day meeting of its Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) Wednesday, the Fed dropped a clause from its December statement that the assurance of patience was consistent with its previous pledge to keep rates near zero for a "considerable time."

Investors were cheered up as the Fed said the "economic activity in the U.S. has been expanding at a solid pace," an upgrade from "moderate pace" in its previous statement. Moreover, it noted job gains were "strong," compared to "solid gains" in December statement.

The greenback gained against most of the other major currencies as the statement bolstered market speculation that the central bank was moving closer to interest rates hike. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against six major currencies, was up 0. 51 percent at 94.497 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro dropped to 1.1309 dollars from 1.1367 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound decreased to 1.5156 dollars from 1.5201 dollars. The Australian dollar rose to 0.7952 dollars from 0.7938 dollars.

The U.S. dollar bought 117.69 Japanese yen, lower than 117.80 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar went up to 0.9060 Swiss franc from 0.8993 Swiss franc, and it climbed to 1.2498 Canadian dollars from 1.2396 Canadian dollars. Endite