The dollar headed for its biggest monthly gain since July on Tuesday and stands out as the strongest so-called safe asset as war in the Mideast has set oil prices surging and raised the risk of global recession.
Overnight the dollar extended gains widely, save for against the yen where renewed threats of intervention from Tokyo have traders wary of selling the yen too far past 160 per dollar.
Having touched its weakest since July 2024 a day earlier, the yen traded at 159.81 in the Asia morning on Tuesday, down about 2.4 percent on the month owing to Japan’s import exposure to skyrocketing energy prices. It was little changed on data showing a small slowdown in Tokyo inflation this month.
The euro slipped 0.3 percent overnight, and is headed for a monthly drop of about 3 percent, and the Australian and New Zealand dollars slid to multi-month lows.
The Aussie , after…
