NEW YORK: The dollar Wednesday rose against most major currencies after US Federal Reserve meeting minutes showed most policy makers favored scaling back monetary stimulus.
Near 2200 GMT, the euro bought $1.3574, down from $1.3613 a day earlier.
The dollar advanced to 104.82 yen from 104.56 yen.
The euro slipped against the Japanese currency, to 142.26 yen from 142.34 yen.
Minutes of the Fed's Federal Open Market Committee's December 17-18 meeting showed that "most" attendees thought US unemployment would continue to fall even if the Fed cut back stimulus.
The Fed on December 18 announced that it would begin trimming monthly asset purchases, or quantitative easing (QE), in January by $10 billion to $75 billion a month.
"The fact that the minutes do not meaningfully alter the outlook for a gradual and steady reduction in Fed stimulus remains positive for the dollar," said Omer Esiner, chief market analyst at Commonwealth Foreign Exchange.
"Indeed, as the economic data improves, there is a risk that the Fed could become more aggressive in its reduction of monetary stimulus."
But Kathy Lien, managing director at BK Asset Management, said the minutes did not trigger any "major movement" in the US dollar, even as the currency remained elevated Wednesday against most major currencies.
One reason is that "the minutes provided very little detail on the future pace of reductions," Lien said in a research note. "While the minutes showed a commitment to unwinding QE, there was nothing to get investors excited about buying dollars."
Analysts are watching for the outcome of Thursday's monetary policy meeting of the European Central Bank. Although the economic outlook remains uncertain in the eurozone, many analysts expect the ECB to refrain from further stimulus at this point.
"Tomorrow, we expect (ECB President) Mario Draghi to say that while further stimulus remains an option, they are comfortable with the current level of monetary policy and are in no rush to ease again," said Lien.
Among other currencies, the British pound rose to $1.6447 from $1.6399.
The dollar increased to 0.9111 Swiss franc from 0.9093.
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