Dec 07, 2021 12:20AM ET
By: AnalysisWatch
The dollar gained in Asia on Tuesday morning as concerns over the omicron COVID-19 variant began to ease.
U.S. dollar index futures, which track the greenback against a basket of other currencies, fell 0.09% to 96.245 by 12:12 AM ET (5:12 AM GMT).
The USD/JPY pair rose 0.19% to 113.68.
The AUD/USD pair rose 0.37% to 0.7075 after the Reserve Bank of Australia left its interest rate unchanged at 0.10% during the day. The NZD/USD pair gained 0.19% to reach 0.6763.
The USD/CNY pair fell 0.07% to 6.3712. Chinese data released earlier in the day showed that exports rose 22% year-on-year in November and imports rose 31.7%. The trade balance stood at $71.72 billion.
The GBP/USD currency pair rose 0.15% to 1.3284.
Ntsakisi Maluleke, a public health specialist in South Africa's Gauteng province, said at the weekend that patients with Omicron had shown only mild symptoms.
Meanwhile, China eased monetary policy by cutting banks' reserve requirements for the second time in 2021. The People's Bank of China will cut reserve requirement ratios at most banks by 0.5 percentage points next week, freeing up CNY1.2 trillion ($188.16 billion) in liquidity.
The Reserve Bank of India will announce its monetary policy decision on Wednesday. The US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, and the Bank of England will all announce their monetary policy decisions next week.
Although New Zealand's central bank raised its interest rate to 0.75% in November, some investors said the move was bad for growth.