US dollar climbs on Fed tapering speculation

The US dollar advanced against major currencies on Tuesday on speculation that the Federal Reserve would start to wind down quantitative easing soon. Market began to bet that the Fed would begin to taper its bond- buying program at December's policy meeting considering upbeat jobs data released Friday and a national economic activity index released on Tuesday. The Chicago Fed National Activity Index, a monthly index designed to gauge overall economic activity and related inflationary pressure, rose to 0.14 in September from a revised 0. 13 a month before. U.S. private employers added 204,000 positions in October, and the unemployment rate, based on a separate survey which counted the furloughed federal employees as out of job, edged up to 7.3 percent, the Labor Department said Friday. The dollar rose to a one-month peak against the yen and moved closer to the level of 100 before the government releases its quarterly economic growth data on Thursday. More on U.S. the economic front, U.S. small business optimism took a tumble in October, with the small-business optimism index dropping to 91.6 from 93.9 in the prior month, the National Federation of Independent Business said Tuesday. With a relatively light economic calendar this week, investors are awaiting Federal Reserve Vice Chairwoman Janet Yellen's confirmation testimony on Thursday. In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.3427 dollars from 1.3408 dollars of the previous session, and the British pound decreased to 1.5891 dollars from 1.5992 dollars. The Australian dollar dropped to 0.9297 dollar from 0.9355 dollar. The dollar bought 99.67 Japanese yen, higher than 99.21 yen of the previous session. The dollar moved down to 0.9182 Swiss franc from 0.9193 Swiss franc and it went up to 1.0491 Canadian dollars from 1.0473 Canadian dollars.