1st LD Writethru: U.S. dollar declines amid Fed meeting, soft data

The U.S. dollar decreased against other major currencies on Tuesday as the Federal Reserve started its monetary policy meeting and economic data from the country came out negative.

The two-day Fed meeting was expected to give out more clues on the timing of interest rates hike in its statement released on Wednesday.

Analysts said that the central bank may pause in its march toward raising interest rates following the recent string of weak economic data from the country.

On the economic front, the New York-based research group Conference Board said Tuesday in a report that U.S. consumer confidence declined in April, with the Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index registering 95.2 in April, down from 101.4 in March.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was down 0.69 percent at 96.093 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.0979 dollars from 1.0890 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound increased to 1.5337 dollars from 1.5231 dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar went up to 0.8015 dollars from 0. 7858 dollars.

The U.S. dollar bought 118.87 Japanese yen, lower than 119.08 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar slipped to 0.9542 Swiss francs from 0.9557 Swiss francs, and it declined to 1.2031 Canadian dollars from 1.2087 Canadian dollars. Endite