U.S. Dollar Moves Higher After Seeing Early Weakness

(RTTNews) - After seeing some weakness earlier in the day, the value of the U.S. dollar has moved higher over the course of trading on Tuesday.

The U.S. dollar index is rising 0.28 or 0.3 percent to 104.96 after falling as low as 104.42 in early morning trading.

Currently, the greenback is trading at 136.18 yen compared to the 136.19 yen it fetched at the close of New York trading on Monday. Against the euro, the dollar is valued at $1.0578 compared to yesterday's $1.0609.

The dollar may be continuing to benefit from its appeal as a safe haven amid ongoing concerns about the outlook for interest rates.

In the coming days, traders are likely to keep an eye on reports on weekly jobless claims and manufacturing and service sector activity.

The data could shed additional light on the strength of the economy and provide further clues about how much the Federal Reserve is likely to raise interest rates.

In U.S. economic news, MNI Indicators released a report showing Chicago-area business activity unexpectedly contracted at a slightly faster rate in the month of February.

MNI Indicators said its Chicago business barometer edged down to 43.6 in February from 44.3 in January, with a reading below 50 indicating a contraction. Economists had expected the Chicago business barometer to inch up to 45.0.

A separate report released by the Conference Board showed U.S. consumer confidence unexpectedly decreased for the second consecutive month in February.

The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index slid to 102.9 in February from a downwardly revised 106.0 in January.

The continued decrease surprised economists, who had expected the consumer confidence index to inch up to 108.5 from the 107.1 originally reported for the previous month.

"The decrease reflected large drops in confidence for households aged 35 to 54 and for households earning $35,000 or more," said Ataman Ozyildirim, Senior Director, Economics at The Conference Board.