USD/CHF little changed in light trade

US dollar remained almost unchanged against the Swiss franc on Tuesday, as market players were cautious ahead of the monthly meeting on policy by the Federal Reserve Bank, scheduled to begin today.

USD/CHF slipped to a session low at 0.9291 at 8:51 GMT, after which consolidation followed at 0.9299, down by 0.16% for the day. Support was expected in the range 0.9285-0.9300, while resistance was to be met in the zone 0.9325-0.9350.

Market players awaited the two-day FED meeting on monetary policy in pursuit of clues that the central bank will begin to pare back its asset purchases from the current scale of 85 billion USD per month. The greenback found certain support on Monday, after the release of pending home sales report from the United States, which added to optimism over the possible short-term pare back of Federal Reserve’s Quantitative Easing. According to yesterday’s data, pending home sales decreased at a smaller than projected pace in June, by 0.4% compared to 1.0%. The index jumped by 10.9% in June this year, compared to June 2012.

Later in trading day the United States was expected to publish data, regarding S&P/Case-Shiller home price index, which encompasses 20 major cities in the country and another report, by the Conference Board, which will show the results of a survey of over 5 000 US households, stating their opinion about current and future economic conditions in the US.

Additionally, on Wednesday the advance estimate of US Gross Domestic Product was to be reported, as expectations pointed a slow down in the rate of increase to 1.0% during Q2 2013, compared to Q2 2012, from a 1.8% gain during the preceding quarter.

Elsewhere, the franc was little changed against the euro as well, with EUR/CHF ticked down 0.07% to 1.2341 at 11:42 GMT. In the mean time, GBP/CHF erased 0.45%, trading at 1.4221 at 11:46 GMT.