1st LD Writethru: U.S. dollar mixed ahead of Fed announcement

The U.S. dollar traded mixed against other major currencies on Tuesday as investors were awaiting the Federal Reserve announcement on Wednesday for more clues about when the interest rate hike will begin.

The Fed kicked off its two-day monetary policy meeting on Tuesday and was expected to give policy guidance as well as economy evaluation in its after-meeting announcement.

Analysts said the central bank is unlikely to start to raise rates at this meeting, but its comments on economic situation will signal the timing.

On the economic front, privately-owned housing starts in May were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.036 million units, down 11.1 percent from the revised level of the previous month, the U.S. Commerce Department said Tuesday.

Investors also kept an eye on the Greece debt crisis. A meeting among eurozone finance ministers on Thursday is widely seen as Greece's last chance to avoid default. The 19-country Eurogroup will seek to strike a deal before the country's EU bailout expires at the end of June.

In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.1241 dollars from 1.1292 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound climbed to 1.5648 dollars from 1.5612 dollars. The Australian dollar went down to 0.7745 dollar from 0.7765 dollar.

The U.S. dollar was flat at 123.37 Japanese yen. The greenback inched up to 0.9325 Swiss franc from 0.9285 Swiss franc, while staying unchanged at 1.2317 Canadian dollars. Endite