Investing.com - The dollar traded lower across the board on Monday late morning in Asia amid mounting geopolitical tensions and U.S.-China trade talks.
The Asian session opened with headlines concerning U.S.-led strikes at Syria over the weekend. Besides geopolitics, the U.S.-China trade spat also remains a focus this week as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are holding meetings on Monday.
The U.S. dollar index that tracks the greenback against a basket of six major currencies last stood at 89.44 at 11:11PM ET (03:11 GMT), down 0.08%.
On Saturday, the U.S., France and Britain launched missiles to target chemical weapons facilities in Syria in response to a said poison gas attack. The joint military action, along with the latest round of U.S. sanctions on Russia, stirred up geopolitical tensions. Traders in Asia responded with a selloff in the greenback to turn to safe-haven assets.
The U.S. retail sales data are due Monday, with market expecting a 0.4% rise in March compared to a decline of 0.1% in February.
In China, The People's Bank of China set the fix rate of yuan against the dollar at 6.2884 versus the previous day's 6.2898. The USD/CNY pair gained 0.05% to trade at 6.2819.
China will report its first-quarter growth data on Tuesday, with its GDP growth expected to come at 6.8% to continue the momentum from 2017. The country will also publish data on March industrial production, fixed asset investment and retail sales along with the GDP report.
The USD/JPY pair plunged 0.20% to 107.19. The anti-risk yen attracts demand in times of market turmoil. In addition, Japan’s trade figures will be released on Wednesday.
Elsewhere, the AUD/USD pair gained 0.12% to trade at 0.7773. Australia’s job data will come on Thursday.