SHANGHAI, Dec 16 (Reuters) - China"s yuan edged lower against the U.S. dollar on Wednesday despite a broadly weaker greenback, continuing to consolidate following recent gains and as traders awaited clear signals from U.S. and Chinese policymakers. The weaker yuan came after a slightly stronger daily fixing by the People"s Bank of China (PBOC), which set the midpoint for the currency"s daily trading band at 6.5355 per dollar. Spot yuan opened at 6.5350 per dollar and was trading at 6.5424 at midday, 34 pips weaker than Tuesday"s close. The offshore yuan traded at 6.5223 per dollar from Tuesday"s close of 6.5167. The global dollar index fell to 90.451 from the previous close of 90.479. "It seems the yuan"s rise for the year has petered out," said a trader at a foreign bank. "Although the dollar index has been biased weaker, the USD/CNY pair still faces strong resistance around the 6.5 level. As for what comes next, I think we"ll need to watch the PBOC"s thinking." China"s central bank surprised markets on Tuesday with a bigger-than-expected injection of medium-term funds, in what was seen as a move to calm market nerves after a string of corporate bond defaults. The injection countered expectations for tighter monetary policy and pressured the yuan against the dollar. Investors are also closely watching events in Washington, where congressional leaders on Tuesday began a meeting to finalise $1.4 trillion in stimulus spending. The U.S. Federal Reserve is also expected to keep its key overnight interest rate pinned near zero on Wednesday and signal it will stay there for years to come, following a two-day policy meeting. "Whatever the specifics of the outcome tomorrow we expect the conclusion to be that the Fed will ensure accommodation is maintained, thus providing the basis for the U.S. dollar to weaken further in 2021," Marco Sun, chief financial markets analyst at MUFG Bank in Shanghai said in a note. Alex Wong, director at Ample Finance Group in Hong Kong, said that while he expected the Fed to remain accommodative, it would be to a lesser degree than over the past year and the dollar would be likely to depreciate less quickly. "(The yuan) may surpass the key resistance level of 6.5 against the U.S. dollar ... but if we compare the upside level in 2021 and 2020, I think that in 2021 the upside level will not be as great." The yuan market at 4:15AM GMT: ONSHORE SPOT: Item Current Previous Change PBOC midpoint 6.5355 6.5434 0.12% Spot yuan 6.5424 6.539 -0.05% Divergence from 0.11% midpoint* Spot change YTD 6.43% Spot change since 2005 26.51% revaluation Key indexes: Item Current Previous Change Thomson 95.19 95.17 0.0 Reuters/HKEX CNH index Dollar index 90.451 90.479 0.0 *Divergence of the dollar/yuan exchange rate. Negative number indicates that spot yuan is trading stronger than the midpoint. The People"s Bank of China (PBOC) allows the exchange rate to rise or fall 2% from official midpoint rate it sets each morning. OFFSHORE CNH MARKET Instrument Current Difference from onshore Offshore spot yuan 6.5223 0.31% * Offshore 6.6744 -2.08% non-deliverable forwards ** *Premium for offshore spot over onshore **Figure reflects difference from PBOC"s official midpoint, since non-deliverable forwards are settled against the midpoint. . (Reporting by Andrew Galbraith and Jindong Zhang; editing by Richard Pullin)