Fed’s stay-put on stimulus boosts dollar

NEW YORK — The dollar strengthened against other major currencies Tuesday after the Federal Reserve signaled there would be no fresh stimulus to get the sluggish US economy growing more vigorously.

The euro slipped to $1.3233 around 2100 GMT from $1.3319 in New York late Monday and the dollar rose to 82.78 Japanese yen from 82.06 yen.

The Fed minutes for its March 13 Federal Open Market Committee policy meeting disappointed investors hoping for signs of an extra boost, even a third round of quantitative easing, to kickstart growth.

“There was precious little mention of QE3 and even the end of the current ultra-low rates policy is now data-dependent,” said Sebastien Galy at Societe Generale, causing the dollar to move higher.

The pound dropped to $1.5914 from $1.6021 late Monday, while the dollar firmed to 0.9096 Swiss francs, up from 0.9037 francs.

George Goncalves at Nomura said: “The minutes have now exposed that the markets are going to need more than just talk in order to believe that the Fed is willing to do more easing.”