Investing.com - The Aussie gained solidly in Asia on Tuesday after an upbeat bank survey of business views and with regional data focused on July China trade.
USD/JPY fell 0.06% to 110.68, while AUD/USD traded at 0.7933, up 0.25%.
China is expected to report exports rose 10.9% in July year-on-year, down from an 11.3% gain in June, while imports rose 16.6%, compared to a 17.2% increase in the previous month for a trade balance surplus of $46.08 billion, wider than the $42.77 billion in June.
Earlier, Japan said its unadjusted current account fro June reached ¥935 billion, wider than the ¥814 billion in surplus seen, but narrower than the ¥1.654 trillion in May. The NAB Business Confidence survey for July came in at plus-12 from plus-9 and the related NAB Business Survey stood steady at plus-15, solid figurs for the closely watched indicators of sentiment.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, fell 0.12% to 93.19.
Overnight, the dollar was roughly unchanged against a basket of global currencies on Monday, struggling to add to gains following Friday’s strong U.S. jobs report, after a top Fed official attempted to cool rate hike expectations.
On the heels of its biggest one-day gain of the year on Friday, the dollar made a subdued start to the week, as investors awaited key inflation data this week while St. Louis Fed President James Bullard suggested that low interest rates are “likely to remain appropriate” over the near term.
"The current level of the policy rate is likely to remain appropriate over the near term," Bullard said in slides prepared ahead of a speech to the America's Cotton Marketing Cooperatives 2017 Conference in Nashville, Tennessee.
Bullard does not vote on monetary policy this year at the Fed, though he participates in the central bank's regular policy discussions in Washington.
Bullard’s comments came ahead of a speech by Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari which market participants are likely to closely monitor for fresh clues about monetary policy, following the strong US jobs numbers last Friday.
Also weighing on the dollar was renewed geopolitical uncertainty, after fresh sanctions were imposed on North Korea for its nuclear and missile programmes.
Inflation data later in the week, however, are expected to dominate moves in the dollar, with producer price index and the consumer price index data due Thursday and Friday respectively.
Sterling struggled to make up ground against the greenback, weighed by Brexit woes as Conservative MPs vowed to fight a £36bn bill for leaving the European bloc.