“The won has been reacting to the dollar’s movements most sensitively among Asian currencies recently, which would explain today’s sharp rise”, said Jeong My Young, a foreign exchange analyst at Samsung Futures.
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In forex markets, the dollar slipped a touch to 94.442 against a basket of currencies.
Indeed, U.S. Treasuries actually rallied on Monday, with 10-year yields US10YT=RR at 1.54 percent after falling 4 basis points overnight.
Oil Search’s first-half profit fell 89 percent from a year ago and revenues declined 33 percent. The 0.7 percent increase in wholesale trade topped economists’ expectations for a rise of 0.1 percent.
On Wall Street, the Dow .DJI had ended Monday down 0.12 percent, while the S&P 500 .SPX lost 0.06 percent and the Nasdaq .IXIC added 0.12 percent.
The market’s focus was on whether she would express hawkish views similar to those of Vice Chair Fischer and New York Fed President William Dudley, or take a more subdued stance in line with the July Fed policy meeting minutes that suggested the central bank was not in a hurry to raise rates.
“It’s still early days yet for the Jackson Hole conference. but the markets seem to be already discounting the possibility that Yellen may look to talk up a September rate hike”, said Angus Nicholson, a market analyst at spreadbettor IG.
TOKYO, Aug 23 The dollar dipped against the yen on Tuesday, while the New Zealand dollar rose after the nation’s central bank chief said he did not see the need for a rapid succession of interest rate cuts. The index fell about 1.3 per cent last week on what traders perceived as mixed signals from Fed officials.
Oil remained under pressure after shedding 3 per cent on Monday. Analysts expect Yellen to express caution but support the impression the US central bank is on track to raise rates as early as this year. Prices retreated from two-month highs on worries about burgeoning Chinese fuel exports, more Iraqi and Nigerian crude shipments and a rising USA oil rig count.
Brent crude fell 0.54% to $48.90 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate edged down 0.80% to $47.03 per barrel at 0926 BST.
Oil prices were off about 1 percent as worries of oversupply trumped hopes of an output freeze.
Biotech stocks received a boost from Pfizer’s $14 billion acquisition of cancer drug maker Medivation, which jumped almost 20 percent. Energy shares slumped including Oil Search and Woodside Petroleum.
Healthscope’s full-year profit rose 19 percent from a year ago. Santos (ASX:STO-AU) shares reversed earlier losses to trade up 0.11 percent.
Shares of Scentre, which operates Westfield shopping centers in Australia and New Zealand, were up 0.2 percent.
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index, which tracks the greenback against 10 peers, rose 0.2 percent as of 4 p.m.in NY as speculation on higher borrowing costs boosted the currency’s appeal.
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The Australian dollar was up 0.1 percent at $0.7638, moving up on the coattails of the kiwi.
