NEW YORK: The dollar was little changed to slightly higher on Tuesday in choppy trading, with currencies generally lacking direction as market participants awaited the outcome of a Federal Reserve meeting for clues as to where US interest rates are headed.

The greenback overall posted gains against the euro and commodity currencies such as the Australian and New Zealand dollars.

At the Fed’s two-day monetary policy meeting, policymakers are expected to forecast that the US economy will grow in 2021 at its fastest rate in decades, with unemployment falling and inflation rising, but they are unlikely to change their monetary policy.

In midmorning trading, the dollar index was up 0.1% at 91.902. It has gained for a third straight session.

The euro was down 0.2% at $1.1906.

The Australian dollar - which is seen as a barometer for risk appetite - was down 0.2% at US$0.7742. The New Zealand dollar also slipped, down 0.1% at US$0.7191.

Britain’s pound was little changed at $1.3891. Economic growth in the UK will fall by 4% in the first quarter of 2021 compared with the first quarter of 2020, the governor of the Bank of England said.

The dollar fell 0.3% against the yen to 108.79 ahead of the Bank of Japan’s two-day policy meeting, which ends on Friday.