Dollar Posts Losses Against Rivals

The U.S. dollar was weak against its peers on Tuesday, turning easy after having rebounded from 2-1/2-year lows in recent sessions thanks to a jump in U.S. Treasury yields.

The dollar index was down nearly 0.5% at 90.04. The index had tumbled to around 89.20 last week.

Against the Euro, the dollar was down 0.45% at $1.2207

The Pound Sterling was stronger by about 1.2%, fetching $1.3668 a unit. The British currency gained against its peers after Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey downplayed expectations of taking interest rates negative to stimulate the economic growth.

In an online speech to the Scottish Chambers of Commerce, Bailey said that the monetary policy committee is debating the merits of negative interest rates. It has a lot of implications such as reducing bank profits, he added.

The Yen firmed up nearly 0.5% to 103.75 a dollar. Japan posted a current account surplus of 1,878.4 billion yen in November, data released by the Ministry of Finance showed. That exceeded expectations for a surplus of 1,551 billion yen and was down from 2,144.7 billion yen in October.

The trade balance showed a surplus of 616.1 billion yen. The capital account showed a surplus of 2.1 billion yen and the financial account had a surplus of 1,593.3 billion yen.

The AUD-USD was trading at 0.7775, giving the Australian currency a gain of over 1%.

The Swiss franc firmed up nearly 0.5% at CHF 0.8863. The Loonie was up by about 0.55% at C$1.2714 a dollar as oil prices rose amid expectations of a drop in crude inventories.

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