Investing.com - The dollar remained lower against the yen on Tuesday as concerns over an escalation of the crisis in Ukraine eased, following the release of mixed U.S. data on housing and inflation.
USD/JPY touched session lows of 101.32, and was last down 0.34% to 101.40.
The pair trimmed losses earlier, rising to an intra-day high of 101.77 after Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia isn't seeking "a partition of Ukraine". The comments came one day after President Putin recognized the results of Sunday's referendum in Crimea, which saw a majority of voters chose to split from Ukraine.
The European Union and the U.S. have declared the vote illegal and imposed sanctions.
The dollar remained under pressure after data on Tuesday showed that the annual rate of inflation in the U.S. slowed to 1.1% in February from 1.6% in January. Analysts had expected the annual inflation rate to decline to 1.2%.
Month-on-month, U.S. consumer prices rose 0.1% in February, in line with forecasts.
Separately, the Commerce Department reported that the number of building permits issued in the U.S. rose to a four-month high in February, rebounding after a sharp drop in January.
The number of building permits issued last month jumped 7.7% to 1.018 million units following a 16.8% fall in in January, as a result of severe winter weather.
But U.S. housing starts fell 0.2% last month to hit a seasonally adjusted 907,000 units, disappointing expectations for an increase of 3.4% to 910,000 units.
The euro remained slightly lower against the dollar after a report showed that German economic sentiment deteriorated in March, as concerns over the crisis in Ukraine weighed.
The ZEW Centre for Economic Research reported that its index of German economic sentiment fell to 46.6 this month from February’s reading of 55.7. Analysts had expected the index to decline to 53.0.
EUR/USD slid 0.12% to 1.3904, holding below last week’s two-and-a-half year peaks of 1.3966.
Elsewhere, USD/CHF was up 0.20% to 0.8748, extending a pullback from last week’s two-and-a-half year lows of 0.8699.
The dollar was higher against the pound, with GBP/USD down 0.27% to 1.6591.
The Australian dollar gained ground, with AUD/USD rising 0.37% to 0.9120. Earlier Tuesday, the minutes of the Reserve Bank’s March policy meeting expressed concerns over the impact of the strong Aussie on economic growth. However, the minutes also reinforced the view that further rate cuts are not on the cards.
The New Zealand dollar rose to 10-month highs against the greenback, with NZD/USD advancing 0.57% to 0.8613.
The greenback was almost unchanged against the Canadian dollar, with USD/CAD edging up 0.03% to 1.1055. The pair briefly touched session lows of 1.1026 earlier after data showed that Canadian manufacturing sales rose more-than-forecast in January.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, edged up 0.09% to 79.57.