Investing.com – The Australian dollar fell slightly during Asian trade on Wednesday ahead of quarterly Wage Price Index and after a higher CB Leading Index.
The Conference Board reported on Wednesday that CB Leading Index that is based on several economic indicators to predict the future direction of the economy went up 0.8% against an earlier rise of 0.2%.
At 1130 (0030 GMT) Australian Bureau of Statistics will release Q4 Wage Price Index. It is expected to show a 0.6% QoQ rise, taking the YoY rise to 2.6%. This is expected to be down from 2.7% YoY rise in Q3.
In Japan, at 1245 in Tokyo (0345 GMT) Ministry of Finance will the release its 20-year JGB auction results. The MOF is due to auction Y1.2 trillion of 20-year bonds. At 1400 (0500 GMT), the Bank of Japan will release its monthly economic report.
USD/JPY was flat at 102.35, AUD/USD traded down 0.10% at 0.9018 and NZD/USD also fell 0.11% at 0.8298.
On Tuesday the dollar weakened after the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said that its general business conditions index came in at 4.48 for February, down from a 20-month high of 12.51 in January. Analysts had expected the index to decline to 9.00.
The new orders index fell to zero from a two-year high of 11 last month.
The numbers were the latest in a series of soft U.S. economic indicators that have prompted many investors to wonder whether the Federal Reserve will slow the pace of reductions made to its asset-buying stimulus program.
The Fed is currently buying $65 billion in bonds a month to suppress interest rates to spur recovery, which weakens the dollar as a side effect.
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was flat at 80.05.
On Wednesday, the U.S. is to publish reports on building permits, housing starts and producer price inflation.