The dollar rose ahead of Fed meeting; Tariff news return to focus

On Wednesday, the USD inched up in Asia as traders eyed the Fed meetings and China-US trade news.

The Dollar Index last traded at 97.485 by 03:46 GMT up 0.1%.

The Fed Reserve will decide on the rates on Wednesday, followed by a press briefing from Chairman Jerome Powell.

Investors expect the Fed's Open Market Committee to keep interest rates unchanged later in the day.

Tariff news return to focus

The US-China trade news returned to focus today, as the Wall Street Journal and the Bloomberg cited sources saying the U.S. might delay a proposed tariff on Chinese goods.

However, Trump's top economic advisor- Larry Kudlow, said he could not confirm the delay.

Without a deal or a delay to tariffs before the Dec 15 deadline, the U.S. has slated to impose tariffs on Chinese goods.

Chinese equities and the dollar rose on the news, but with limited gains.

"The markets have become numb to the noise" on trade; Burns McKinney told Bloomberg in an interview. He is a portfolio manager at Allianz Global.

"The FOMC meeting, the election in the U.K. and then later this week the Dec15 deadline are all factors that I think the markets have generally not priced in any bad news."

The GBP/USD pair lost 0.2% to 1.3141, as the GBP fell on news that Conservative Party's lead in Britain's general election was slashed by more than half in a closely watched opinion poll released two days before the country votes.

The EUR/USD pair was little changed at 1.1090 as traders awaited the next European Central Bank policy decision, which is on Thursday.

The AUD/USD pair gained 0.1% to 0.6816. Rabobank and Nomura Holdings analysts said in a Bloomberg report that the Australian dollar will face a turbulent 2020 amid uncertainty around global economic growth and trade war.i

Meanwhile, Ranko Berich noted in a statement that "worsening in trade tensions is the biggest risk for the Aussie dollar." Ranko is the head of market analysis at Monex in London,

The Aussie dollar has plunged about 3% so far this year as the Sino-U.S. trade war dragged on.