The U.S. congressional election is widely expected to boost the Democratic Party, which has a strong chance of winning control of the House of Representatives, with Republicans seen likely to keep the Senate.
The dollar index .DXY, a gauge of its value versus six major peers traded flat at 96.33. It had hit a 16-month high of 97.20 last week.
The euro EUR= was slightly lower at $1.1404, about one percent above this year's trough of $1.1301 touched on Aug. 15.
Euro zone finance ministers called on Italy overnight to change its 2019 budget to conform with European Union rules before a deadline set for next week, but Rome dug in its heels saying its disputed deficit plan would not change.
Against the yen JPY=, the dollar changed hands 0.1 percent higher at 113.27 yen, close to a four-week high of 113.385 yen reached last week.
• The U.S. congressional election is widely expected to boost the Democratic Party, which has a strong chance of winning control of the House of Representatives, with Republicans seen likely to keep the Senate.
“Markets are increasingly pricing in the possibility of a victory for the Republicans - even in the House,” said Masafumi Yamamoto, chief currency strategist at Mizuho Securities.
A Republican victory in both chambers was likely to boost the U.S. dollar, Yamamoto said. But a sharp rise in U.S. Treasury yields following the elections might lead to selling of U.S. equities.
“If there will be another big round of sell-offs in the U.S. equity market, then I think that’s not necessarily positive for the dollar,” he said.
• Facebook Inc blocked about 115 user accounts after U.S. authorities tipped it off to suspicious behavior that may be linked to a foreign entity, the company said in a blog post on Monday, hours before U.S. voters head to the polls.
• Analysts at Danske Bank point out that today, US voters are voting in the midterms and the results are expected in the early hours of Wednesday morning (CET) and will be a key market moving event for today’s session.
• European Central Bank policymakers are leaning towards minimal changes to how cash is spent in the final act of their stimulus program as they try to keep edgy bond investors on side, five sources close to the matter said.
• German industrial orders rose unexpectedly in September driven by higher demand from domestic and other euro zone clients, data showed on Tuesday, suggesting that Europe’s largest economy ended the third quarter on a solid footing.
Contracts for ‘Made in Germany’ goods edged up 0.3 percent after an upwardly revised jump of 2.5 percent in the previous month, the Federal Statistics Office said. The reading beat market expectations for a fall of 0.6 percent.
German manufacturing is likely to propel growth in the fourth quarter as many companies are still enjoying an unusually high level of orders, the ministry said.
• China is ready to hold discussions and work with the United States to resolve trade disputes because the world’s two largest economies stand to lose from confrontation, Vice President Wang Qishan said on Tuesday.
The focus is now on U.S. President Donald Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the end of the month. Trump has threatened to impose further tariffs on $267 billion of Chinese imports into the United States if the two countries cannot reach a deal on trade.
• China’s central bank said bubbles in blockchain financing are apparent, and that the government should strengthen supervision to fend off financial risks.
• Internationalisation of China’s yuan is market-driven, a monetary policy official of China’s central bank said Tuesday, in a speech originally prepared for the central bank’s deputy governor.
“Yuan internationalisation is a natural process driven by the market, and its basic motivation is real demand from trade and investment,” said Huo Yingli, director general of the Monetary Policy Department II of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC).
• Japanese buyers of Iranian crude are expected to prepare for resuming oil imports from the Islamic Republic after the country was granted a waiver from U.S. sanctions, trade minister Hiroshige Seko said on Tuesday.
• Oil prices fell on Tuesday, weighed down by sanction exemptions from Washington that will allow Iran’s biggest oil customers to keep importing from Tehran, as well as by concerns that an economic slowdown may curb fuel demand growth.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were at $62.90 a barrel at 0653 GMT, down 20 cents, or 0.3 percent, from their last settlement.
International Brent crude oil futures LCOc1 were down 47 cents, or 0.6 percent, at $72.70 a barrel.
Analysts said expectations of an economic slowdown in coming months were weighing on the fuel demand outlook, while concerns eased on the supply-side after Washington granted sanction waivers to eight importers of Iranian oil that will allow them to continue purchase.
Reference: Reuters, CNBC
Thai
Eng