• The dollar dipped to a five-month low against the yen on Monday as rising tensions over North Korea kept the safe-haven Japanese currency in demand.
The dollar index against a basket of major currencies was down 0.2 percent at 100.390 .DXY, weighed down following the release of Friday's weak U.S. retail sales and consumer prices data and as flight-to-safety drove U.S. Treasury yields to five-month lows.
The U.S. currency extended losses from the previous day and retreated to 108.135 yen JPY=, its lowest since mid-November.
"It is unclear whether the situation over North Korea will escalate into military action, but uncertainty is increasing and the dollar continues to edge lower. The dollar also looks shaky technically, after slipping below the 200-day moving average of 108.80 yen," said Masafumi Yamamoto, chief currency strategist at Mizuho Securities in Tokyo.
The euro was a shade higher at $1.0622 EUR=, having spent the previous session in a very tight range.
Wariness over the first round of the French presidential elections on April 23, another potential source of geopolitical risk keeping global markets nervous, was expected to cap the common currency this week.
• U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, pledging an "unshakeable" commitment to South Korea, landed at a U.S. military base next to the demilitarized border with North Korea, a day after a failed missile launch by the North.
Pence flew to South Korea on the first stop of a four-nation Asia tour intended to show America's allies - and remind its adversaries - that the Trump administration is not turning its back on the increasingly volatile region.
• China's economy grew 6.9 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, slightly faster than expected, supported by a government infrastructure spending spree and a frenzied housing market that is showing signs of overheating.
The government is aiming for growth of around 6.5 percent in 2017, slightly lower than last year's target of 6.5-7 percent and the actual 6.7 percent, which was the weakest pace in 26 years.
• Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin will hold a bilateral meeting on Thursday on the sidelines of the Group of 20 finance leaders' gathering in Washington D.C., Japan's Ministry of Finance said on Monday.
The meeting between and Aso and Mnuchin comes in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump's recent remarks that the dollar was "getting too strong" and would eventually hurt the U.S. economy.
• South Korea's economy would suffer modest collateral damage if the United States were to impose trade restrictions on China, the state-run Korea Development Institute (KDI) think tank said in a report on Monday.
The KDI reckoned a 10 percent fall in Chinese exports to the United Sates would erase 0.31 percent from South Korea's total gross domestic product. KDI said a fall of that magnitude would not represent a crisis, but it reinforced the case for South Korea to continue diversifying its export markets.
• Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said on Monday the central bank needs to continue with its easy monetary policy because consumer prices are still distant from its 2 percent inflation target.
Kuroda said the BOJ needs to closely monitor consumer prices because they are lacking some upward momentum.
• U.S. Vice President Mike Pence put North Korea on notice on Monday that neither the United States nor South Korea would tolerate further missile or nuclear tests by the reclusive state, with the U.S. attack on Syria showing its resolve.
Pence and South Korean acting president Hwang Kyo-ahn expressed disappointment over China's retaliatory actions against South Korea in response to the deployment of U.S. missile defense system THAAD in the South, but reaffirmed their plan to go ahead with its deployment.
• France's presidential election race looked tighter than it has all year on Friday, just over a week before voting opens as a new opinion poll put the four leading candidates only three percentage points apart.
The two highest scorers in the first round on April 23 will go through to contest a run-off on May 7. The race has been tightening for weeks, even though centrist Emmanuel Macron remains favourite.
According to the poll by Ipsos-Sopra Steria for Le Monde newspaper, Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen will tie on 22 percent each in the first round next Sunday, with the far-left's Jean-Luc Melenchon and conservative Francois Fillon on 20 and 19 percent respectively.
Reference: Reuters
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