US Dollar Closes Higher on Tuesday

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The US Dollar closed higher at the end of trading on Tuesday (Wednesday morning, local time) amidst promising prospect of recovery in the US housing sector.

The greenback has reached its highest level against the Euro after the US Department of Trade reported that housing start-ups in the US spiked by 15.7 percent in July, compared to the previous month.

Furthermore, data suggests that the construction of new, private dwellings in July increased to 1,093 milion units - surpassing the previous peak recorded in November 2013. Meanwhile, consumer price index in the US increased by 0.1 percent in July to remain within the expectation of the market.

The governors of central banks worldwide will convene on Thursday at an annual summit in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Investors is expected be on the lookout for the keynote speech by the Chair of the US Federal Reserve Bank Janet Yellen to look for clues of a possible interest rate hike.

At the end of trading session in New York, Euro traded lower against the dollar at 1.3319 from 1.3360 per US Dollar. The British pound also weakened to trade at 1.6618 from 1.6728 per US Dollar. Similarly the Australian dollar also closed lower, trading at 0.9309 per US Dollar at the end of trading - down from 0.9324 per US Dollar on the previous day.

The greenback closed higher against the yen to trade a 102.91 yen per US Dollar, up from 102.58 yen per US Dollar yesterday. It's position against the Swiss franc also improved from 0.9064 franc to 0.9091 franc per US Dollar at the end of trading yesterday. One US Dollar is equivalent to 1.0944 Canadian Dollar when the market closed - up from 1.0888 on the previous day.

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