1st LD Writethru: U.S. dollar mixed on Fed minutes

The U.S. dollar traded mixed against other major currencies on Wednesday as the minutes for the Federal Reserve's latest meeting showed officials were concerned that raising interest rates too soon would dampen the U.S. economic recovery.

Fed policymakers noted in the minutes released on Wednesday that the overall weak international markets and falling inflation expectations in the country had influenced the central bank's confidence for a possible interest rates hike in the near future.

"Several participants saw the continuing weakness of core inflation measures as a concern," said the minutes.

Meanwhile, U.S. economic data came out mostly negative. The U.S. Labor Department said on Wednesday its seasonally adjusted producer price index (PPI) for final demand decreased 0.8 percent in January, while final demand prices moved down 0.2 percent in both December and November. It was the third straight month of decline in the PPI.

U.S. private-owned housing starts dropped 2 percent in January from a month earlier to an annual rate of 1.065 million, missing market expectations of a rate of 1.07 million, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.

Industrial production for January rebounded 0.2 percent after a December decrease of 0.3 percent, slightly below market consensus, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday.

In late New York trading, the euro declined to 1.1378 dollars from 1.1411 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound climbed to 1.5439 dollars from 1.5357 dollars. The Australian dollar went up to 0.7817 dollar from 0.7815 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 118.77 Japanese yen, lower than 119.29 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar went up to 0.9436 Swiss francs from 0.9368 Swiss francs, and it increased to 1.2425 Canadian dollars from 1.2386 Canadian dollars. Endite