Investing.com - The Aussie gained further on Monday in Asia as house prices in China added to a recent spate of upbeat economic data on the top export market for Australia with financial markets in Japan shut for a holiday and investors looking ahead to central bank meetings in Tokyo and Washington this week.
AUD/USD traded at 0.7520, up 0.41%, while USD/JPY changed hands at 102.22, down 0.06%.
In China, house prices data for August rose 9.2%, outpacing the increase of 7.9% seen in the previous month year-on-year.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, fell 0.17% to 95.89.
Overnight, the U.S. dollar surged to a more than two-week high against a basket of major currencies on Friday, as investors digested key U.S. inflation data, while looking ahead to a next week's policy meetings from the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan.
The Labor Department said the consumer price index rose 0.2% in August, compared to expectations for a 0.1% gain. Year-over-year, consumer prices increased 1.1%.
Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, so-called core consumer prices climbed 0.3%. The core CPI increased 2.3% in the 12 months through August.
The faster-than-expected growth in U.S. consumer prices helped support the case for a Fed rate hike later this year.
Investors are currently pricing in just a 12% chance of a rate hike at the Fed's September 20-21 meeting, according to Investing.com's Fed Rate Monitor Tool.Elsewhere, the yen's losses remained limited amid fading expectations of drastic easing steps from the Bank of Japan, which, like the Fed, also meets on September 20-21.
Sources familiar with the BOJ's thinking said the central bank will consider making negative interest rates the focus of its future easing by shifting its prime policy target to interest rates from base money.
Outside the G7, traders will be awaiting a monetary policy announcement from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand on Wednesday.