1st LD Writethru: U.S. dollar rises ahead of release of Fed minutes

The U.S. dollar climbed against most major currencies on Tuesday as investors were awaiting the closely-watched Federal Reserve minutes for its latest meeting scheduled for release on Wednesday.

After its March policy meeting, the Fed dropped the pledge to be "patient" in beginning to raise interest rates from a statement, which analysts saw as a gesture to pave the way for an interest rate hike as soon as June 2015. Wednesday's meeting minutes were expected to give more clues about the timing of the rate hike.

The greenback was under pressure in the previous two sessions on the country's weaker-than-expected nonfarm payroll report.

However, Fed officials still showed optimism about the recovery of U.S. economy. New York Fed President William Dudley said Monday that slow first-quarter growth largely reflected temporary conditions including harsh winter weather. Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart also said on Monday that recent economic weakness probably won't continue.

The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against six major peers, was up 1.15 percent at 97.890 in late trading.

On the economic front, U.S. job openings in February registered 5.1 million, little changed from 5.0 million in January, according to the Labor Department on Tuesday.

In late New York trading, the euro decreased to 1.0831 dollars from 1.0979 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound dropped to 1.4833 dollars from 1.4924 dollars. The Australian dollar went up to 0.7639 dollar from 0.7626 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 120.37 Japanese yen, higher than 119.34 yen of the previous session. The greenback edged up to 0.9653 Swiss franc from 0.9556 Swiss franc, and rose to 1.2492 Canadian dollars from 1.2467 Canadian dollars. Endite