TOKYO- The dollar dipped against riskier currencies on Tuesday as hopes for a COVID-19 vaccine and big corporate deals improved investor appetite for assets such as the yuan and the euro.
The dollar index dipped to 93.029, slipping further from a one-month high of 93.664 touched last Wednesday, with its low last week of 92.695 seen as an immediate support.
The euro inched up to $1.1867, having gained for four straight sessions until Monday.
Against the safe-haven yen, the dollar traded at 105.73 yen, having touched a two-week low of 105.55 yen on Monday.
Helping sentiment, AstraZeneca resumed British clinical trials of its COVID-19 vaccine, one of the most advanced in development while Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE proposed expanding their Phase 3 COVID-19 vaccine trial.
“It was uplifting that Pfizer has made clear a target of vaccines. As risk assets bounced back, the dollar has lost momentum,” said Kyosuke Suzuki, director of forex at Societe Generale.
Wall Street shares bounced back also as several multi-billion dollar deals — including Nvidia’s purchase of chip designer Arm and a deal between Oracle and China’s ByteDance on TikTok — lifted confidence.