2020.10.2721:22:00UTC+00Dollar Turns In Sluggish Performance Against Peers

The U.S. dollar turned in a somewhat sluggish performance on Tuesday amid uncertainty about the outcome of the presidential election.

Due to a lack of progress in stimulus negotiations, the dollar saw some early strength, but lost its way fairly quickly with the focus shifting to upcoming election, and updates on coronavirus infections.

Traders were also reacting to the latest batch of economic data.

Data from the Commerce Department showed that new orders for U.S. manufactured durable goods jumped much more than expected in September, surging up by 1.9% in the month after rising by 0.4% in August. Economists had expected durable goods orders to increase by 0.5%.

A report from the Conference Board said its consumer confidence index edged down to 100.9 in October after jumping to a revised 101.3 in September. Economists had expected the index to inch up to 102.0 from the 101.8 originally reported for the previous month.

The dollar index, which edged up to 93.13 in the Asian session, fell to 92.79 around noon before recovering to 92.96. It had ended at 93.05 on Monday.

Against the Euro, the dollar was flat at $1.1810, recovering from $1.1840.

The Pound Sterling was stronger by about 0.25%, fetching $1.3056. It had earlier firmed up to $1.3080.

The Yen firmed up to 104.46 a dollar (down 0.36%), recovering from 104.84 a dollar in the Asian session.

The Aussie was down marginally against the dollar with the AUD-USD pair trading at 0.7129. Reserve Bank of Australia Assistant Governor Michele Bullock said Australia's economic recovery is likely to be unpredictable and uneven.

The Swiss franc was down slightly at 0.9081 a dollar, while the Loonie was trading at $1.3180, recovering from $1.3212 a dollar.