Dollar holds near two-week lows in Fed's wake

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: U.S. one hundred dollar notes are seen in this picture illustration taken in Seoul February 7, 2011. REUTERS/Lee Jae-Won/File Photo

By Chuck Mikolajczak

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The dollar stabilized after falling to two-week lows on Monday as the greenback attempted to recover from Friday's drop on comments from U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell that were interpreted as dovish.

The dollar had one of its biggest daily percentage declines of the month on Friday after Powell said tapering could begin this year, but the central bank was in no hurry to raise interest rates.

The dollar index hit a two-week low at 92.595 before firming slightly, and was last up 0.008% at 92.677.

"The market is still digesting Powell’s dovish tapering speech and you are probably seeing the market is a little confused that Treasury yields are not getting the go-ahead for lift-off here, and that is going to be data dependent on everything with inflation and the job markets," said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA in New York.

Benchmark 10-year notes last rose 8/32 in price to yield 1.2852%, from 1.312% late on Friday as investors began to turn their focus to Friday's U.S. payrolls report, which will provide more insight into the Fed's likely policy path.

Expectations are for non-farm payrolls to increase by 750,000 in August, with the unemployment rate forecast to dip to 5.2% from 5.4%. Other data likely to be eyed this week include inflation figures from Europe as well as gauges of the U.S. and Chinese manufacturing sectors.

"You are probably not going to see a whole lot of conviction behind anything before we get past Friday," said Moya.

The dollar briefly ticked higher following data on Monday that showed pending home sales declined for a second straight month in July and a report on manufacturing activity in August from the Dallas Federal Reserve showed a slowing from the prior month.

The euro was up 0.06% to $1.1799 after hitting its highest in more than three weeks at 1.181.

The Japanese yen weakened 0.03% versus the greenback at 109.89 per dollar.

Overall trade in Europe was subdued because of a public holiday in Britain. Moya noted the holiday tends to disrupt normal currency flows.

For the month the dollar index has gained about 0.7%.

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Currency bid prices at 3:09PM (1909 GMT)

Description RIC Last U.S. Close Pct Change YTD Pct High Bid Low Bid

Previous Change

Session

Dollar index

92.6650 92.6700 +0.01% 2.983% +92.7910 +92.5950

Euro/Dollar

!RIC !RIC !RIC !RIC !RIC !RIC

{EUR=EBS} is {EUR=EBS} {EUR=EBS} is {EUR=EBS} is {EUR=EBS} {EUR=EBS}

invalid is invalid invalid% invalid% is invalid is invalid

Dollar/Yen

!RIC !RIC !RIC !RIC !RIC !RIC

{JPY=EBS} is {JPY=EBS} {JPY=EBS} is {JPY=EBS} is {JPY=EBS} {JPY=EBS}

invalid is invalid invalid% invalid% is invalid is invalid

Euro/Yen

129.66 129.54 +0.09% +2.16% +129.7000 +129.4900

Dollar/Swiss

!RIC !RIC !RIC !RIC !RIC !RIC

{CHF=EBS} is {CHF=EBS} {CHF=EBS} is {CHF=EBS} is {CHF=EBS} {CHF=EBS}

invalid is invalid invalid% invalid% is invalid is invalid

Sterling/Dollar

$1.3762 $1.3761 +0.04% +0.76% +$1.3774 +$1.3734

Dollar/Canadian

1.2608 1.2611 -0.02% -0.99% +1.2634 +1.2575

Aussie/Dollar

$0.7296 $0.7310 -0.18% -5.15% +$0.7318 +$0.7286

Euro/Swiss

1.0818 1.0746 +0.67% +0.10% +1.0826 +1.0748

Euro/Sterling

0.8571 0.8567 +0.05% -4.10% +0.8581 +0.8567

NZ

Dollar/Dollar $0.7002 $0.7008 -0.06% -2.46% +$0.7014 +$0.6988

Dollar/Norway

8.6610 8.7095 -0.53% +0.89% +8.7295 +8.6470

Euro/Norway

10.2200 10.2769 -0.55% -2.34% +10.3000 +10.1996

Dollar/Sweden

8.6220 8.6361 -0.12% +5.19% +8.6520 +8.6151

Euro/Sweden

10.1732 10.1855 -0.12% +0.96% +10.2069 +10.1656