By Alex Ho
Investing.com - Prices of the safe-haven yen fell on Tuesday in Asia as equity markets turned green after opening lower.
The USD/JPY pair gained 0.5% to 106.40 by 12:30 AM ET (04:30 GMT).
The AUD/USD pair gained 0.2% to 0.6127. Minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) March 3 meeting said the central bank cut its benchmark interest rate and was ready to do so again as it became “increasingly clear” the coronavirus would cause major disruption to economic activity worldwide.
The central bank slashed the cash rate to 0.5% to provide support to the economy, according to the minutes, which also showed officials agreed on “the importance of monitoring the rapidly changing developments closely in subsequent weeks and maintaining contact to assess the implications” of the outbreak for the economy.
The RBA is set to announce further policies on Thursday this week. It is expected to cut rates to 0.25%.
Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar index that tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies was unchanged at 98.155 as traders await the Commerce Department to issue its report later in the day.
Retail sales are expected to have risen 0.2% in February, down from a 0.3% rise in March, according to economists’ forecasts compiled by Investing.com.
Meanwhile, economists are looking for February industrial production to have risen 0.4% and capacity utilization to have ticked up to 77.1%.
The dollar was pressured on Monday after the Federal Reserve slashed interest rates to near zero late on Sunday and announced massive bond buying.
The USD/CNY pair inched up 0.1% to 6.9947.