Investing.com - The dollar fell to fresh eight-month lows against the other major currencies on Monday, as policy decisions by the Bank of Japan and the Federal Reserve continued to weigh and as investors an upcoming report on U.S. manufacturing activity.
USD/JPY was steady at 18-month lows of 106.38.
The yen remained broadly supported after the BoJ chose on last Thursday to hold its monetary policy, defying market expectations for additional monetary easing.
The decision came a day after the Fed kept interest rates on hold last week and indicated that any future interest rate hikes would be data dependent.
The greenback was also hit after data last Thursday showed that the U.S. economy grew at the slowest rate in two years in the first quarter, with gross domestic product increasing just 0.5% from a year earlier.
On Friday, the U.S. Treasury flagged concerns over economic policies in China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Germany which all have a large current account surplus.
The Treasury said it would closely monitor the economic trends and foreign exchange policies of the five countries.
EUR/USD rose 0.32% to at seven-month high of 1.1491.
Earlier Monday, research group Markit said its euro zone manufacturing purchasing managers’ index hit 51.7 in April, up from 51.5 the previous month and beating expectations for an unchanged reading.
The dollar was lower against the pound and the Swiss franc, with GBP/USD up 0.10% at 1.4618 and with USD/CHF slipping 0.29% to 0.9571.
The Australian and New Zealand dollars were stronger, with AUD/USD up 0.32% at 0.7626 and with NZD/USD gaining 0.47% to 0.7010.
The National Australia Bank earlier reported that its business confidence index slipped to 5 in April from a reading of 6 the previous month.
Elsewhere, USD/CAD held steady at 1.2545, near Friday’s nine-month lows of 1.2495.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was down 0.24% at 92.80, the lowest since August 2015.