The dollar, on Tuesday, March 7, steadied against a basket of currencies in early European trade, but still stuck below highs hit in December and January.
The dollar index rose 0.2 percent to 101.90 by 10:16 a.m. ET. Against sterling it gained 0.4 percent to $1.2185 and traded up at 114.02 yen and $1.0570 per euro.
The biggest movers among the G10 group of major currencies were sterling and the Australian dollar, which gained after a meeting of the country’s Reserve Bank before handing back most of those gains as European dealers arrived.
The peaking of a year-long surge in metals prices has seen the Aussie fall back and it was the hardest hit of the major currencies in last week’s swift move to price in a March rise in Federal Reserve interest rates.
Against other currencies, however, the U.S. dollar has done less well, failing to break conclusively below $1.05 to the euro or 112 to the yen, CNBC reports.
“If you had told me expectations for a March hike would reach almost 100 percent I would have said we would have been well below $1.05,” said Niels Christensen, a strategist with Nordea in Copenhagen.
“The disappointment in that move caused more profit-taking on Friday but I don’t see the euro moving much higher from here.”
Comments overnight by Trump administration trade adviser Peter Navarro pulled attention back to concerns over the White House’s attitude to trade and the dollar as officials prepare for G20 meetings later this month.
