By Alex Ho
Investing.com - The Australian dollar rose on Tuesday in Asia after the Reserve Bank of Australia decided to hold the official cash rate steady at 0.75% in its board meeting today.
The decision was in line with expectation, as some analysts said the next rate cut is likely to occur in April. The central bank made no changes in its last two meetings.
The AUD/USD pair traded 0.4% higher to 0.6715 by 1:05 AM ET (05:05 GMT).
Meanwhile, the Chinese yuan recovered against the U.S. dollar today, although concerns about the widening coronavirus outbreak kept gains capped.
The number of cases and deaths showed little sign of slowdown, as China reported on Tuesday that its total death toll from the virus increased to 425 and cases rose to more than 20,000.
"The question is how long it will take to contain the epidemic. While some people are selling risk assets, there are also lots of people who are looking for a chance for bargain-hunting," said Ayako Sera, market economist at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, in a Reuters report.
"If we start to see a decline in the number of new cases, then we could see an end. But at the moment, it is hard to say when that will happen."
The USD/CNY pair last traded at 6.9961, down 0.3%.
The USD/JPY pair gained 0.1% to 108.80 as risk assets traded mostly in the green today.
The U.S. Dollar Index was little changed at 97.660.
Overnight, the ISM manufacturing index for January showed an uptick to 50.9, beating expectations of 48.5. A reading above 50 in the ISM index indicates an expansion in manufacturing, which accounts for about 12% of the U.S. economy.