U.S. dollar trades mixed amid U.S. tax bill vote

NEW YORK, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar traded mixed against other major currencies on Tuesday as investors awaited the results of the country's tax bill vote.

The Republican-controlled Congress began the voting on Tuesday on the biggest changes to the U.S. tax system in more than 30 years, with little standing in the way of the party's first major legislative bill under President Donald Trump, according to CNBC.

The U.S. House of Representatives, which introduced initial tax legislation barely six weeks ago, was poised to act first with a Tuesday afternoon vote.

However, some analysts still doubted that the overall impact of the tax overhaul plan on the economy won't be as big as expected.

On the economic front, U.S. privately-owned housing starts in November were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.297 million units, beating market consensus, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday.

This is 3.3 percent above the revised October estimate of 1.256 million and 12.9 percent above the November 2016 rate of 1.149 million.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, decreased 0.27 percent at 93.446 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.1846 U.S. dollars from 1.1783 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound climbed to 1.3386 U.S. dollars from 1.3385 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar fell to 0.7663 dollar from 0.7667 U.S. dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 112.92 Japanese yen, higher than 112.56 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar dropped to 0.9854 Swiss franc from 0.9860 Swiss franc, and it moved up to 1.2877 Canadian dollars from 1.2869 Canadian dollars. Enditem