Forex - Aussie weaker after dovish tone in minutes, Kuroda clarifies

Investing.com - The Aussie fell on Tuesday as central bank minutes from the most recent meeting held a dovish tone, while the yen weakened on comments from the Bank of Japan chief.

AUD/USD traded at 0.7762, down 0.05%, while USD/JPY changed hands at 123.62, up 0.17%. EUR/USD was quoted at 1.1267, down 0.16%.

The Reserve Bank of Australia sees monetary policy remaining accommodative especially as the Aussie has remained stronger than desired, according to minutes of the June 2 board meeting released on Tuesday.

The RBA held rates at a record low 2% at the meeting.

"Having eased policy at the previous meeting members judged that it was appropriate to leave the cash rate unchanged and to assess information on economic and financial conditions as it becomes available," the RBA said.

"These data would inform the board's assessment of the state of the economy and the outlook and hence whether the current stance of policy would most effectively foster sustainable growth and inflation consistent with the target," the RBA said.

On the yen, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda sought to clarify that remarks last week did not imply that the nominal yen rate would not weaken. He said his comments were about the real-effective exchange rate and not aimed at any pairs.

The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.15% at 95.21.

Overnight, the dollar pared gains against a basket of other major currencies on Monday, after the release of downbeat U.S. economic reports, although hopes the Federal Reserve will soon raise interest rates still lent some support.

The Federal Reserve said that industrial production declined by 0.2% last month, disappointing expectations for a gain of 0.3%. Industrial production fell by 0.5% in April, whose figure was revised down from a previously reported drop of 0.3%.

The report came after the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said that its general business conditions index fell to -2.0 this month from a reading of 3.1 in May. Analysts had expected the index to rise to 6.0 in June.

Market participants were looking ahead to the outcome of the Fed’s latest policy meeting on Wednesday for a clear signal on when it could start to raise interest rates.

Upbeat data on U.S. consumer sentiment on Friday underlined expectations that the central bank could start to hike rates at its September meeting.

The euro remained under pressure after talks in Brussels between Greece and European Union representatives failed to reach an agreement on pension reforms, budget targets and tax rates, adding to fears over a debt default that would threaten Greece’s future in the euro zone.

Investors were looking ahead to a meeting of euro zone finance ministers on Thursday, which was being seen as Greece's last chance to strike a deal.