Ammon News - The dollar and yen eased on Tuesday, paring some of their safe-haven gains from the start of the week in the wake of a major missile exchange between Israel and Hezbollah that stoked fears of a wider escalation.

Imminent U.S. rate cuts also remained at the top of investors' minds and further pressured the greenback, though currencies were mostly rangebound on the lack of major news in the Asian session.

The yen was last 0.1% lower at 144.65 per dollar, having risen to a three-week high of 143.45 in the previous session on a flight to safety.

The euro and sterling rose about 0.1% each to $1.1172 and $1.3201 respectively, hovering near their recent multi-month highs.

The Canadian dollar strengthened slightly to 1.34875 per U.S. dollar, having touched a five-month peak on Monday as oil prices surged.

Most currencies were holding near milestone highs and the dollar near its lowest level in more than a year, helped by the likelihood of a U.S. rate cut in September after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell more or less nodded to such a move in his Jackson Hole speech on Friday.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed lower on Monday, as AI heavyweight Nvidia dipped ahead of its quarterly report later in the week.

Against a basket of currencies, the greenback dipped 0.03% to 100.82, languishing near a 13-month low of 100.53 hit in the previous session.

Elsewhere, the Australian dollar gained 0.23% to $0.6787, not far from a one-month high of $0.67985 hit on Friday.

The New Zealand dollar rose 0.34% to $0.6225, similarly holding near Friday's high of $0.6236, its strongest level in more than seven months.

Reuters