The dollar fell for the fourth straight day against the euro Thursday as investors digested the Federal Reserve's announcement of further stimulus on Wednesday which is likely keep the U.S. currency weak for some time.
The Fed, after its policy meeting ended Wednesday, matched market expectations by saying it would keep buying $45 billion of government bonds each month after its "Operation Twist" program expires, in addition to buying $40 billion a month in agency mortgage-backed securities.
It said interest rates would remain near zero until unemployment falls to 6.5 percent.
Without higher rates or the Fed scaling back the amount of available dollars in the economy, the greenback should remain capped. Strategists said future dollar moves were likely to be driven by news on the U.S. fiscal issue and increasingly by U.S. data after the Fed's decision, also announced Wednesday, to explicitly link its policy path to unemployment and inflation.
U.S. data Thursday on weekly initial jobless claims, retail sales and inflation did little to affect trading, but comments by U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner charging that the White House was willing to "slow-walk our economy right up to — and over — the 'fiscal cliff'" did keep the dollar pressured..