The U.S. dollar pared losses against other major currencies on Monday (Nov. 18, 2013), as investors considered when the Federal Reserve may begin to scale back its bond-buying program.

The ICE dollar index, a measure of the U.S. unit against six other currencies, declined to 80.774 on Monday, struggling back from an intraday low of 80.565. On Friday afternoon, the index traded at 80.824.

Last week, the index fell 0.6% after Janet Yellen vigorously defended the Fed's bond buying, saying the benefits of the program outweigh the costs. Yellen is nominated to take over leadership of the central bank from Chairman Ben Bernanke at the beginning of the new year.

The Fed currently buys $85 billion in Treasury and mortgage debt each month in an effort to stimulate the economy, and those purchases have been understood to weigh on the dollar.

"The investment climate is characterized by the continued accommodative monetary stance by the three key central banks: the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan,€ wrote analysts at Brown Brothers Harriman in a note to clients.

This week's economic data are unlikely €to alter the widespread understanding that the ECB and BOJ may take more measures later and that the Federal Reserve is likely maintain the current course until at least the end of [the first quarter in 2014],€ they said.

On Monday, New York Fed President William Dudley said anemic economic growth could give way to stronger growth over the next few years.

The data are €still not providing much support for a significantly stronger [U.S. dollar] story,€ said Alan Ruskin, global head of G10 foreign-exchange strategy at Deutsche Bank, in a note Monday.

The WSJ Dollar Index, a rival gauge that pits the greenback against a broader basket of currencies, fell to 73.19 on Monday, hitting an intraday low of 73.03, from 73.26 on Friday.

The euro rose to $1.3506 from Friday's $1.3493, while the dollar fell to 99.90 Japanese yen from 100.19 on Friday.

The British pound declined slightly to $1.6098. Earlier in the day, it had traded as high as $1.6148.

In other news, bitcoin soared to record highs on Monday as the Senate held a hearing on the virtual currency.

Bitcoin (sign:; code: BTC or XBT) is a distributed, peer-to-peer digital currency that functions without the intermediation of any central authority. The concept was introduced in a 2008 paper by a pseudonymous developer known as "Satoshi Nakamoto".
Bitcoin has been called a cryptocurrency because it is decentralized and uses cryptography to control transactions and prevent double-spending, a problem for digital currencies. Once validated, every individual transaction is permanently recorded in a public ledger known as the blockchain. Payment processing is done by a network of private computers often specially tailored to this task. The operators of these computers, known as "miners", are rewarded with transaction fees and newly minted Bitcoins. However, new Bitcoins are created at an ever-decreasing rate.

sources: http://en.twwtn.com/Finance/79_50747.html