Forex - Dollar mostly higher, but USD/JPY below 100

Investing.com - The U.S. dollar traded higher against most of its major rivals during Tuesday’s Asian session, but greenback continued to traded below 100 against the Japanese yen.

In Asian trading Tuesday, EUR/USD nudged down 0.05% to 1.3071 as traders took some profits in the common currency following some decent euro zone data points out Monday.

On Monday, data showed the euro zone’s manufacturing PMI improved to 48.3 from 47.8 in April indicating that the slump in the manufacturing sector is easing, according to London-based Markit Economics.

Germany’s manufacturing PMI was revised up to 49.4 in May, beating market calls for a 49.0 reading. Meanwhile, data from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed market participants boosted their long bets on gold by 35% to 48,096 futures and options contracts for the week ending May 28.

GBP/USD rose 0.09% to 1.5334 after the British Retail Consortium said U.K. retail sales rose a seasonally adjusted 3.4% last month. Like-for-like sales rose 1.8% after dropping 2.2% in April.

USD/JPY inched down by 0.02% after the Bank of Japan said that Japan’s monetary base jumped 31.6% in May following an April increase of 23.1%. Analysts expected a May increase of 24.3%.

AUD/USD dropped 0.21% to 0.9747 ahead of another meeting by the Reserve Bank of Australia later Tuesday. Most traders are expecting RBA to leave rates at 2.75%, a record low for the country. Still, JP Morgan expects RBA to trim rates by another 50 basis points over the next six months.

NZD/USD fell 0.17% to 0.8079 after the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development recommended New Zealand implement a capital gains tax, permanent deposit insurance for large banks and boosting the age of government pension entitlement.

The U.S. Dollar Index inched up 0.01% to 82.73.