• Escalating tensions in the Middle East and the coming testimony of the former FBI director, British elections and a European Central Bank meeting all took their toll on oil, the dollar and Asian stocks on Tuesday.
The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of trade-weighted peers, fell to its lowest level since the November U.S. election. At 0524 GMT, it was down 0.2 percent, to 96.611.
The dollar slid 0.5 percent to 109.90 yen on Tuesday, close to the six-week low hit earlier in the session.
• International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde has offered Greece's European creditors a way out of their impasse over Athens' debts that would allow the euro zone to release a tranche of aid later this month.
• A rocket landed today at the residential compound used for the Indian ambassador, Manpreet Vohra. No injuries were reported.
The rocket landed in the tennis court at the ambassador's home.
Separately, a blast was reported at a peace conference in the capital of Afghanistan that was opened by President Ashraf Ghani. Nobody was hurt, said sources. Leaders of nearly 30 countries and international organisations are attending the summit.
Last week, a truck-bomb explosion in Kabul left more than 150 dead, making it the deadliest attack in the Afghan capital since the ouster of the Taliban in 2001.
• Euro zone business activity remained strong in May, underpinned by increasing demand, according to a survey released on Monday, which suggested the pace of growth was putting the economy on a path towards a sustained recovery.
• The Arab world's biggest powers cut ties with Qatar on Monday, accusing it of support for Islamist militants and Iran, and reopening a festering wound two weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump's demand for Muslim states to fight terrorism.
• China's economy is likely to have remained on a stable footing in May, buoyed by solid gains in trade and investment as economic ties with the United States take a positive turn and infrastructure spending cushions domestic growth.
• Oil prices bounced around low levels in choppy trading on Tuesday, with Brent crude holding below $50 over concerns that a political rift between Qatar and several Arab states would undermine efforts by OPEC to tighten the market.
Persistent gains in U.S. production also dragged on benchmark crude prices, traders said.
Brent crude was trading at $49.53 per barrel at 0658 GMT, up 6 cents, or 0.1 percent from its last close. However, that is still down around 8 percent from the open of futures trading on May 25, when an OPEC-led policy to cut oil output was extended into the first quarter of 2018.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was at $47.45, up 5 cents, or 0.1 percent. That is down about 7 percent from the May 25 open.
Reference: NDTY,Reuters
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