By Gina Lee
Investing.com – The dollar was down on Tuesday morning in Asia, amid the wait for U.S. August consumer confidence readings, due later in the day, which are expected to rise slightly, and firmer guidance from the U.S. Federal Reserve on the U.S. economic recovery from COVID-19.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will deliver a speech at Thursday’s Jackson Hole symposium themed “Navigating the decade ahead: Implications for monetary policy.” Powell’s speech is widely expected to address the Fed’s strategy moving forward, with the focus zeroing in on the 2% inflation target.
“If we don’t get dovishness, I expect you might actually get rates rising and pop up higher in the U.S. dollar,” Westpac FX analyst Imre Speizer told Reuters.
“The dollar has had a massive fall since March. I think what we’re seeing now is any excuse to buy it back as the punters who have been short all the way down get quite nervous and take the money off the table,” Speizer added.
The U.S. dollar index that tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies edged down 0.11% to 93.207 by 9:48 PM ET (2:48 AM GMT).
The USD/JPY pair inched down 0.04% to 105.93.
The AUD/USD pair gained 0.22% to 0.7177 and the NZD/USD pair was up 0.12% to 0.6533.
The USD/CNY pair edged down 0.13% to 6.9092. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin spoke with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He in a “regularly scheduled call,” with both sides seeing progress made on resolving issues in the phase one trade deal between the two countries, the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office said in a statement.
The GBP/USD pair edged up 0.20% to 1.3089, despite the latest round of Brexit talks between the U.K. and the European Union showing little signs of progress.
Elsewhere across the pond, disappointing data from the European Union, if coupled with the same from the U.S., could see the euro move in either direction.
“We expect more consolidation in euro/dollar this week because of early signs the Eurozone economic recovery is losing momentum,” Commonwealth Bank of Australia (OTC:CMWAY) currency analyst Kim Mundy said in a note.
“Rising COVID-19 infections in some European countries is a key downside risk to the Eurozone’s growth outlook,” Mundy added.