U.S. dollar falls as Fed meeting begins

NEW YORK, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar decreased against most other 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 for more clues on the central bank's rate-hike pace in 2018.

However, most analysts believed the Fed won't hike rates at this meeting. Market expectations for a rate hike are just 5.2 percent, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool.

On the economic front, the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index reported a 6.2-percent annual gain in November, up from 6.1 percent in the previous month, according to a fresh report released by S&P Dow Jones Indices Tuesday.

The 10-City Composite annual increase came at 6.1 percent, up from 5.9 percent in the previous month, while the 20-City Composite increased 6.4 percent year-over-year, up from 6.3 percent in the previous month.

Meanwhile, the Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index registered 125.4 in January, up from 123.1 in December and beating market consensus.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, decreased 0.14 percent at 89.179 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.2405 dollars from 1.2387 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound climbed to 1.4153 dollars from 1.4074 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar lost to 0.8084 dollar from 0.8099 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 108.78 Japanese yen, lower than 108.95 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar fell to 0.9340 Swiss franc from 0.9370 Swiss francs, and it moved up to 1.2329 Canadian dollars from 1.2325 Canadian dollars. Enditem