HONG KONG- Tensions in eastern Europe weighed on the euro on Tuesday and pushed demand for the dollar and the safe-haven yen, while the greenback was also helped by debate about more aggressive US interest rate hikes.
The euro was at $1.1308 in early Asia having touched $1.1278 the day before, its lowest in a week-and-a-half. The yen was at 115.33 per dollar, after briefly hitting 114.99 on Monday, its strongest in a week.
Moves were slightly more cautious elsewhere and the overall result was that the dollar index, which tracks the greenback against six peers was at 96.244, just off Monday’s two-week high.
Investors were spooked somewhat overnight by Ukrainian President VolodymyrZelenskiy calling on citizens to fly the country’s flags from buildings and sing the national anthem in unison on Feb. 16, a date that some Western media have cited as a possible start of a Russian invasion.
Ukrainian officials stressed, however, that Zelenskiy was not predicting an attack on that date, but responding with scepticism to foreign media reports.
Away from geopolitics, US Federal Reserve officials continuing to spar over how aggressively to begin upcoming interest rate increases at their March meeting.
Hawkish Fed official James Bullard, who last week broke ranks to call for a large 50 basis point increase, reiterated calls for a faster pace of interest rate hikes on Monday, though other officials were more cautious in their public remarks.