2020.02.2520:50:00UTC+00Dollar Loses Ground Against Peers

The U.S. dollar exhibited weakness on Tuesday amid speculation the U.S. Federal Reserve might cut interest rates during the course of this year to help offset the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the economy.

Former Minneapolis Fed President Naryana Kocherlakota called for a rate cut as early as May, according to a Bloomberg Opinion piece.

"I don't think that the FOMC should wait that long to deal with this clear and pressing danger," Kocherlakota wrote. "I would urge an immediate cut of at least 25 basis points and arguably 50 basis points."

Market participants are pricing in a 25 basis-point cut at the Fed's policy-setting meeting in June.

Data released by the Conference Board on Tuesday showed consumer confidence in the U.S. improved slightly in the month of February.

The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index inched up to 130.7 in February from a downwardly revised 130.4 in January. Economists had expected the index to tick up to 132.5 from the 131.6 originally reported for the previous month.

The modest increase by the headline index came as the expectations index surged up to 107.8 in February from 101.4 in January.

On the other hand, the report said the present situation index tumbled to 165.1 in February from 173.9 in the previous month.

The dollar index dropped to 98.88 and was last seen at 98.97, down 0.4% from previous close.

Against the Euro, the dollar was down nearly 0.3% at $1.0886.

The Pound Sterling was gaining about 0.6% at $1.3005.

The dollar was weaker by about 0.5% against the yen with a dollar fetching 110.15 yen, compared to 110.72 yen on Monday.

Against the Aussie, the dollar was up slightly with the AUD-USD pair at 0.6601.

The dollar was down marginally against the Loonie at 1.3287, and down more than 0.3% against Swiss franc, at 0.9759.