Swiss Franc Falls Amid Risk Appetite

The Swiss franc weakened against other major currencies in the European session on Wednesday as European shares rose, with higher commodity prices, solid GDP data and a slew of encouraging earnings updates buoying investor sentiment ahead of the Fed's interest-rate decision later in the day. .

The U.K. economy expanded at a slightly faster pace in the second quarter, driven by the dominant service sector, preliminary data published by the Office for National Statistics showed.

GDP grew 0.3 percent sequentially, in line with expectations, after expanding 0.2 percent at the start of the year.

The Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, but investors will be paying close attention to the accompanying statement for clues regarding future rate hikes.

In other economic news, data from the UBS investment bank showed that the Swiss consumption indicator remained broadly stable in June signaling subdued growth in private spending in recent months. The consumption indicator rose marginally to 1.38 in June from revised 1.32 in May.

In the Asian trading today, the Swiss franc held steady against its major rivals.

In the European trading, the Swiss franc fell to nearly a 1-1/2-year low of 1.1164 against the euro and nearly a 2-week low of 116.56 against the yen, from early highs of 1.1079 and 117.62, respectively. If the franc extends its downtrend, it is likely to find support around 1.12 against the euro and 114.00 against the yen.

Against the pound, the yen and the U.S. dollar, the franc dropped to an 8-day low of 1.2496 and a 5-day low of 0.9592 from early highs of 1.2391 and 0.9515, respectively. The franc may test support near 1.27 against the pound and 0.97 against the greenback.

Looking ahead, U.S. new home sales data for June and U.S. crude oil inventories data are slated for release in the New York session.

At 2:00 pm ET, the U.S. Federal Reserve's monetary policy decision is due to be announced. The Federal Open Market Committee is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged at below 1.25 percent.