Copper climbs for third straight session as dollar dips

Copper futures tilted higher in American trade away from the lowest since August, as the dollar index inched farther away for the fourth session out of five from the highest since September 4, while the Federal Open Market Committee's policy meeting draws to an end in Washington. 

As of 02:24 GMT, copper prices rose 0.35% to $298.00 a pound from the opening of $296.95, while the dollar index declined 0.03% to 91.77 from the opening of 91.79. 

Markets await US existing home sales data, expected to have risen 0.4% in August to 5.46 million units, compared to a 1.3% drop in July to 5.44M.  

Markets look forward to policy decisions by Federal Open Market Committee members in this week's periodic meeting, at which policymakers are expected to unveil their three-year forecasts for inflation, growth, unemployment, and interest rates. 

Fed policymakers are expected to start the process of trimming down the Federal Reserve's $4.2 trillion holdings of treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities, while maintaining overnight interest rates at between 1% and 1.25%.