FOREX-Dollar begins week under pressure, but above last week's lows

© Reuters. FOREX-Dollar begins week under pressure, but above last week's lows

* Dollar on track for monthly losses against major peers

* U.S. data this week awaited for clues to Fed rate-hike timing

By Lisa Twaronite

TOKYO, Aug 31 (Reuters) - The dollar began the week under pressure on Monday, on track for monthly losses but off recent lows as investors kept alive hope that U.S. jobs data later this week would give the U.S. Federal Reserve reason to raise interest rates as early as next month.

The dollar index .DXY , which tracks the greenback against a basket of six rival currencies, was at 95.924, down 0.2 percent from Friday's U.S. levels and about 1.5 percent down for the month. But it logged its largest weekly gain in a month, and was well above a seven-month low of 92.621 plumbed a week ago as fears about China sent global equities markets plunging.

The dollar was down about 0.4 percent at 121.28 yen JPY= , down about 2 percent for August, but well above a seven-month low of 116.15 touched a week ago.

The euro was up 0.3 percent at $1.1215 EUR= , below last week's high of $1.1715 but still up more than 2 percent for the month.

Investors awaited the key nonfarm payrolls data on Friday for clues as the whether the Fed would take its long-awaited step to raise interest rates. U.S. business surveys, factory orders and trade data will also be released this week.

"The release of U.S. ADP employment on Wednesday and non-farm payrolls on Friday will be key in analysing the quantum of a September rate hike," Angus Nicholson, market analyst at trading services provider IG in Melbourne, wrote in a note to clients.

Fed Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer said in a speech at the annual central bankers' meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming on Saturday that U.S. inflation will likely rebound as pressure from the dollar fades, allowing the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates gradually.

Markets were pricing in a more than 1-in-2 chance the U.S. Fed would raise interest rates in October, after Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart suggested the Fed could consider such a move.

Lockhart said a 50-percent probability at its Sept. 16-17 meeting seems reasonable, though rates indicated expectations for a September hike at about 37 percent.

The latest data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission released on Friday showed speculators pared back bullish dollar bets in the latest week to their smallest in more than two months.

The dollar's net long position fell to $23.99 billion in the week ended Aug. 25, from $32.26 billion the previous week - the first time in four weeks that the net dollar-long figure came in below $30 billion.