Dollar Recovers After Early Weakness

(RTTNews) - The U.S. dollar exhibited some weakness in the Asian session on Tuesday and remained sluggish in the European session as well as treasury yields dropped and European shares gained on bargain hunting.

However, the greenback gradually edged higher, while the Euro and the Pound Sterling gave up gains.

The Sterling rose after the Bank of England (BoE) vowed it "will not hesitate" to change interest rates by as much as needed, intending to reassure markets unnerved by last Friday's budget.

The BoE governor said the central bank is closely monitoring the weakness in the pound amid the turmoil in markets which saw the pound fall to a record low against the dollar.

Markets widely expect a non-scheduled interest rate hike from the BoE if the currency situation does not improve.

Boston Fed President Susan Collins said on Monday that inflation could be peaking and the economic downturn is expected to be modest.

Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said that more tightening is required to get inflation under control.

On the U.S. economic front, a report released by the Commerce Department showed durable goods orders slipped by 0.2% in August after edging down by 0.1% in July. Economists had expected durable goods orders to decrease by 0.4%.

Another data from the Commerce Department showed new home sales skyrocketed by 28.8% to an annual rate of 685,000 in August after plunging by 8.6% to a revised rate of 532,000 in July. Economists had expected new home sales to slump by 2.2% to an annual rate of 500,000 from the 511,000 originally reported for the previous month.

The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index climbed to 108.0 in September from an upwardly revised 103.6 in August. Economists had expected the consumer confidence index to inch up to 104.3 from the 103.2 originally reported for the previous month.

The dollar index dropped to 113.33 in the Asian session, but rallied to 114.47 before drifting down to 114.20.

Against the Euro, the dollar recovered to 0.9593, after having weakened to 0.9670 a unit of the Euro.

The dollar is down at $1.0727 against Pound Sterling, drifting down from $1.0838.

Against the Japanese currency, the dollar is up slightly at 144.82 yen.

The dollar is up against the Aussie, at $0.6432. The AUD/USD pair had settled at $0.6456 on Monday.

The dollar is slightly weak against Swiss franc, fetching CHF 0.9919 a unit, compared to CHF 0.9932 on Monday.

The Loonie is down against the Loonie, at C$1.3727.