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The dollar has been fluctuating between small gains and losses against its major rivals Wednesday afternoon, but has not ventured far from the flat line. Economic data was on the light side today, with only durable goods order to contend with. Many investors focused their attention on Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's testimony before Congress today
Yellen indicated that the Fed plans to impose stricter capital requirements on large U.S. banks to cope up with the effects of a downturn.
"The existing capital conservation buffer would be replaced with a risk-sensitive, firm-specific buffer that is sized based on stress test results," prepared remarks for hearing before the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee showed.
Yellen gave little indication about the outlook for the economy or monetary policy in her testimony.
Meanwhile, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said that the Fed should wait before raising borrowing costs while speaking at the Institutional Investor Conference in Minneapolis,
He downplayed the view that strong job gains in a low rate environment could create inflationary pressures.
Cleveland's Loretta Mester and Kansas City's Esther George, who both voted to raise interest rates at the last meeting, are scheduled to deliver remarks after the close of trading.
Traders are likely to keep an eye on the remarks for any hints regarding the likelihood of a rate hike before the end of the year.
With an increase in orders for transportation equipment offset by decreases in orders for other manufactured goods, the Commerce Department released a report on Wednesday showing that new orders for U.S. manufactured durable goods came in flat in August.
The Commerce Department said durable goods orders were virtually unchanged in August after jumping by a revised 3.6 percent in July. Economists had expected orders to pull back by about 1.4 percent compared to the 4.4 percent spike that had been reported for the previous month.
Low interest rates are necessary today for a return to higher rates in the future and other policy areas must contribute much more decisively to reap the full benefits of monetary policy, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said Wednesday.
Speaking in the German parliament Bundestag, Draghi said, "The ECB is vigorously counteracting risks to price stability using all necessary tools within its mandate."
The dollar reached a high of $1.1181 against the Euro Wednesday and a low of $1.1236, but is currently trading around $1.1215, nearly flat on the session.
German consumer confidence is set to drop in October due to rising terror threat and the decision taken by the British public to leave the European Union, survey data from GfK showed Wednesday.
The forward-looking consumer sentiment index fell to 10.0 in October from 10.2 in September. The score was forecast to remain unchanged at 10.2.
French consumer sentiment remained unchanged in September, survey data from the statistical office Insee showed Wednesday. The consumer confidence index held steady at 97. The score remained below its long-term average of 100.
More monetary policy easing will be required at some point in the U.K. to avoid the economic slowdown to become more pernicious in the wake of EU referendum, Bank of England Deputy Governor Minouche Shafik said Wednesday.
In a speech, text of which was put on the BoE website, Shafik said the likely timing of stimulus will depend on the continued evolution of the data over the coming weeks and months.
So far, data suggests that the slowdown may not be as sharp or as sudden as feared earlier.
The U.K. economy is currently experiencing a period of uncertainty and adjustment following the Britons' surprise vote in June to leave the European Union, but the longer term prospects are positive, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said in an interview published Wednesday.
"As all of the MPC said in our most recent decision in September, the broad contours of how the economy is performing [are] in line with what we had expected in August," Carney said in the interview to the Herald Scotland newspaper.
"We had expected in August that the economy would slow materially during the second half of this year, relative to relatively strong growth in the first half of this year. Broad brush, that is what we are seeing."
The buck reached a high of $1.2976 against the pound sterling Wednesday and a low of $1.3031. The U.S. currency is currently trading around $1.3010, nearly unchanged on the day.
The greenback rose to an early high of Y100.818 against the Japanese Yen Wednesday, but has since eased back to around Y100.615.
Japan's small business confidence improved more than expected in September, survey figures released by the Shoko Chukin Bank revealed Wednesday. The small business sentiment indicator climbed to 47.7 in September from 46.3 in the prior month. The reading stayed above the expected level of 47.
