NEW YORK: The dollar was slightly higher on Wednesday as traders held off on big bets ahead of the publication of the minutes of the latest US Federal Reserve meeting, in which it adopted a more hawkish stance, for hints of when monetary policy might shift.

The dollar has been supported by the pace of the US economic recovery, which has advanced more quickly than in places like Europe or Japan, helped by an early rollout of vaccinations to curb the Covid-19 pandemic, along with massive amounts of fiscal stimulus.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of peer currencies, edged up 0.225% to 92.747, consolidating near its recent 3-month high, even as US bond yields fell to their lowest levels since February.

The European single currency changed hands at $1.1800, having earlier touched a three-month low of $1.1798. Against the yen, it fell to 130.66 yen, edging near its two-month low of 130.05 set on June 21.

The Australian dollar dipped 0.07% to $0.7489, stabilizing after a bounce on Tuesday when the Reserve Bank of Australia took a first step towards stimulus tapering.

The Japanese yen traded little changed at 110.745 yen per dollar, still holding on to gains from its 15-month low of 111.64 touched last week.

In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin was 1.7% higher at $34,826.88 and ether was up 3.1% at $2,381.41.