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

The U.S. dollar increased against most major currencies on Tuesday as investors were awaiting the closely-watched Federal Reserve policy statement due out Wednesday.

The Fed started its two-day monetary policy meeting Tuesday and was expected to give out information about the timing of interest-rate hikes in its after-meeting statement. Analysts said most investors anticipate that the central bank will not raise rates until 2016.

On the economic front, U.S. new orders for manufactured durable goods in September declined 2.9 billion U.S. dollars or 1.2 percent to 231.1 billion dollars, the Department of Commerce announced Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index came in at 97.6 in October, down from 102.6 in September, missing market consensus of 102.5.

The greenback stayed firm despite the downbeat data. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was up 0.06 percent at 96.923 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro fell to 1.1040 dollars from 1.1046 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound dropped to 1.5307 dollars from 1.5347 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar declined to 0.7195 dollar from 0.7249 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 120.32 Japanese yen, lower than 121.05 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar hiked to 0.9862 Swiss franc from 0.9835 Swiss franc, and it went up to 1.3265 Canadian dollars from 1.3164 Canadian dollars. Enditem