Investing.com - The dollar remained moderately lower against other majors currencies on Tuesday, despite the release of upbeat U.S. data, as investors remained cautious regarding progress on the U.S. tax reform front.
Trading volumes were expected to become more and more thin throughout the week, ahead of the Christmas holiday.
The dollar shrugged off data on Tuesday showing that the number of U.S. housing starts unexpectedly increased in November, while building permits declined much less than expected.
Investors remained cauitous as the U.S. tax reform bill was to set to enter the final stages of approval with the House of Representatives expected to vote on the bill at around 1:30 p.m. ET (18:30 GMT) on Tuesday. The Senate vote is expected to follow either later on Tuesday or on Wednesday.
Republicans have convinced their holdouts to back the bill, suggesting that the proposal with me swept through the Republican-controlled Congress for a final signature into law by U.S. President Donald Trump.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was down 0.13% at 93.11 by 08:40 a.m. ET (12:40 GMT).
EUR/USD gained 0.38% to 1.1826, while GBP/USD slipped 0.19% to 1.3356.
Earlier Tuesday, data showed that German business confidence fell unexpectedly in December.
The yen turned lower, with USD/JPY up 0.18% at 112.75, while USD/CHF eased 0.08% to 0.9849.
Elsewhere, the Australian and New Zealand dollars remained stronger, with AUD/USD up 0.08% at 0.7668 and with NZD/USD rising 0.16% to trade at 0.7006.
Earlier Tuesday, data showed that the ANZ business confidence index for New Zealand improved to -37.8 in December from -39.3 the previous month.
Separately, the minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia showed that the central bank is more confident the economy will strengthen further next year, potentially paving the way toward its first policy tightening since 2010.
Meanwhile, USD/CAD held steady at 1.2863.