The U.S. dollar fell against a basket of currencies on Wednesday after Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer announced his resignation.
The dollar index hit an eight-day low of 92.005 and hovered around that level at 11:31 a.m. in New York, down 0.25 percent.
Dollar index intraday chart
Source: FactSet
Fischer said his resignation will take effect Oct. 13 and cited "personal reasons" for his departure. The resignation comes about nine months before Fischer's term as vice chairman was set to expire. It also leaves another critical position within the central bank to be filled by President Donald Trump, as Chair Janet Yellen's term will expire early next year.
"I don't think it's good news. Fischer along with Yellen were bedrocks of monetary policy," Boris Schlossberg, managing director of FX strategy for BK Asset Management, told CNBC in an email.
"Capital markets generally hate transition, ... and it appears that we will now have wholesale change at the Fed which is the last independent and competent part of US policymaking apparatus," Schlossberg said.
Fischer, one of the more hawkish members of the Fed's monetary policy committee members, announced his resignation at a time when the dollar has fallen sharply.
The currency has dropped nearly 10 percent in 2017 in part because of comments from Trump. In April, he said the dollar was "getting too strong, and partially that's my fault because people have confidence in me."