Investing.com - The dollar gained smartly on the yen and Aussie in Asia on Tuesday after regional data sets as investors turn focus to the release later this week of the minutes of the Fed September board meeting.
USD/JPY changed hands at 103.94, up 0.33%, while AUD/USD traded at 0.7580, down 0.37%. Japan reported a current account surplus of ¥1.98 trillion for August, wider than the seasonally-adjusted surplus of ¥1.58 trillion seen.
The September NAB business confidence survey came in at a reading of plus-6, unchanged from the previous month, and the NAB business survey rose to plus-8 from a previous reading of plus-7.
Earlier, Australia said home loans for August fell 3.0%, more than the 2.5% drop seen month-on-month, and housing finance rose 0.1%, compared with the previous reading at a 0.5% gain with finance commitments for owner-occupied dwellings fell for the second consecutive month owing mainly to a decline in loans for purchases of existing dwellings and a fall in loans for purchases of new dwellings.
A detailed RBA view on the housing market will be available in the semiannual Financial Stability Review due Friday.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.15% to 97.06.
Overnight, the dollar held onto gains against the other major currencies on Monday, hovering close to a two-month peak as hopes for a U.S. rate hike before the year end continued to support. Markets are currently pricing in a 69.5% chance of a rate hike at December's meeting, according to Investing.com's Fed Rate Monitor Tool. Most banks and federal institutions were closed for the Columbus Day holiday.
The greenback has initially weakened after the U.S. Labor Department said on Friday that the economy added 156,000 jobs in September, compared to expectations for 175,000.
The report also showed that the unemployment rate ticked up to 5.0% last month from 4.9% in August.
However, demand for the U.S. dollar remained supported as the disappointing jobs data was not expected to prevent the Federal Reserve from raising interest rates later this year.
The pound erased the sharp losses posted on Friday but remained under pressure amid sustained concerns over a ‘hard Brexit’ for Britain.
Analysts did not rule out the possibility of a “fat finger”, or human error, but most speculated that it could have caused by algorithms picking up on comments from French President François Hollande, who took a rough position on the Brexit, with the move exacerbated by thin trade.