U.S. dollar climbs as Fed meeting begins

NEW YORK, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar rose against most major currencies on Tuesday as the Federal Reserve kicked off its two-day policy meeting.

Investors kept a close eye on the Fed's policy meeting, with an updated policy statement set to be released after the conclusion of the meeting on Wednesday. Following the release, Fed Chair Janet Yellen will hold her last news conference as the central bank chief.

The Fed is widely expected to deliver its third interest-rate hike in 2017. According to the CME Group's FedWatch tool, market expectations for a Fed rate hike in December stood at 100 percent.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was up 0.26 percent at 94.109 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro fell to 1.1739 U.S. dollars from 1.1792 U.S. dollars, and the British pound dropped to 1.3315 U.S. dollars from 1.3348 U.S. dollars. The Australian dollar increased to 0.7560 U.S. dollar from 0.7535 U.S. dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 113.55 Japanese yen, higher than 113.47 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar climbed to 0.9920 Swiss franc from 0.9907 Swiss franc, and it edged up to 1.2875 Canadian dollars from 1.2847 Canadian dollars. Enditem