(RTTNews) - After staying firm during the European session, the U.S. dollar turned weak in the New York session on Tuesday after Fed Chair Jerome Powell expressed satisfaction with the progress on inflation.
Powell, who was speaking at an ECB Forum in Portugal, said that policy makers want to understand whether recent weaker inflation readings indicate a true picture of underlying price pressures.
"We want to be more confident that inflation is moving sustainably down toward 2% before we start the process of reducing or loosening policy," he said.
Data from the Labor Department showed the number of job openings rose to 8.140 million in May, up 221,000 from a month earlier.
Redbook Research said that the Redbook Index in the U.S. increased by 5.8% in the week ending June 29, compared to the same week in the previous year.
Later in the week, the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report is due. The data, due on Friday, is expected to show a slowdown in the pace of job growth in the month of June. The report could impact the outlook for interest rates.
The dollar index, which climbed to 106.05 in the European session, dropped to 105.68, netting a loss of about 0.21%.
Against the Euro, the dollar declined marginally to 1.0747. Against Pound Sterling, the dollar weakened to 1.2686 from 1.2650. The dollar edged down slightly against the Japanese currency, to 161.42 yen.
The dollar was weak against the Aussie at 0.6668. The Swiss franc weakened to 0.9040 a dollar, while the Loonie strengthened to 1.3679 against the greenback.
