By Gina Lee
Investing.com – The dollar was up on Tuesday morning in Asia, with investors awaiting the next moves from the U.S. Federal Reserve ahead of its policy meeting.
The U.S. Dollar Index that tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies gained 0.10% to 96.707 by 12:53 AM ET (5:53 AM GMT).
“Japanese names have been very active since Monday in dollar/yen, trying to trade off the chance of some kind of yield-curve control from the Fed...I personally don’t think yield curve control is necessary now, but the dollar is under clear selling pressure,” Yukio Ishizuki, foreign exchange strategist at Daiwa Securities, told CNBC.
The USD/JPY pair was down 0.42% to 107.97. The yen hit a week-high of 108.03 to the dollar earlier in the session over the possibility of increased bond purchases, or even a dovish outlook, from the Fed.
Meanwhile, the Antipodean currencies benefitted from investors’ increased risk appetite, as well as from its governments further easing lockdown measures earlier in the session. But the AUD/USD pair slid 0.43% to 0.6988 after the AUD reached a 10-month high of $0.7040 earlier.
The NZD/USD pair was down 0.25% to 0.6541. The NZD hit its’ highest point in almost five months earlier with New Zealand easing all its lockdowns, save boarder restrictions, after the nation was declared COVID-19-free on Monday.
The USD/CNY pair gained 0.12% to 7.0784 and the GBP/USD pair was down 0.18% to 1.2700.