According to Yahoo News, the dollar regained some ground on Tuesday and hovered near a one-week high against major peers, while bitcoin extended its momentum on optimism that U.S. regulators could soon approve exchange-traded spot bitcoin funds. The greenback rose marginally against the yen in early Asia trade to 147.23, helped by a slowdown in core consumer inflation in Tokyo that put downward pressure on the Japanese currency. The euro, meanwhile, languished near a three-week low hit on Monday and last traded $1.0840, while the dollar index stood near a more than one-week high and was last at 103.59.
Analysts say the greenback's move higher was in part due to a reversal of its heavy selloff in recent weeks, which saw the dollar index falling some 3% in November, its steepest monthly decline in a year. A slew of U.S. economic indicators due this week, including November's non-manufacturing ISM figures out later on Tuesday and the closely-watched nonfarm payrolls report at the end of the week, will provide further clarity on the future path of interest rates. Traders have all but priced in a rate cut from the Federal Reserve by the first half of next year.
In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin last stood at $41,873, not far from the previous session's peak of $42,404, its highest level since April 2022. The world's largest cryptocurrency has charged roughly 153% higher this year on U.S. rate cut expectations and bets that American regulators will soon approve exchange-traded spot bitcoin funds (ETFs), opening the bitcoin market to millions more investors. "$40,000 has acted like a magnet since Bitcoin finally broke through $30,000 in late October. It was only a matter of time before the next round number succumbed as enthusiasm about a spot ETF reaches fever pitch," said crypto-services firm Nexo co-founder Antoni Trenchev.
