US dollar drops on presidential election concerns

New York, Nov 3: The US dollar declined for the second consecutive session against most major currencies on Wednesday amid rising uncertainties about the next week's US presidential election.

In late New York trading, the euro rose to $1.1096 from $1.1059, and the British pound climbed to $1.2294 from $1.2240, Xinhua news agency reported. 

The Australian dollar increased to $0.7661 from $0.7649.

The dollar bought 103.28 Japanese yen, lower than 104.00 yen in the previous session. The dollar inched down to 0.9728 Swiss francs from 0.9745 Swiss francs, and it rose to 1.3388 Canadian dollars from 1.3385 Canadian dollars. 

The greenback had been lingering at eight-month highs on market speculation for a rate-hike in December after Hillary Clinton winning the election.

However, investors' long-held bets of Clinton's victory have been shaken since the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced a plan on Friday to probe newly-found emails related to Clinton.

Clinton's lead over her Republican counterpart, Donald Trump, has narrowed significantly since Friday's news broke, according to data from RealClearPolitics.

Analysts said the greenback was under pressure as the market began to price in a Trump presidency.

Meanwhile, the Fed left interest rates unchanged on Wednesday after concluding its two-day monetary policy meeting, in line with market expectations.

The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against six major peers, was down 0.38 per cent to 97.330 in late trading on Wednesday.