By Gina Lee
Investing.com – The dollar was up on Tuesday morning in Asia with more countries loosening their strict lockdown measures put in place to curb the COVID-19 virus.
The U.S. Dollar Index that tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies slipped 0.09% to 100.185 by 11:59 AM ET (4:59 AM GMT) clawed back its losses from the previous session with investors’ increased risk appetite pushing the dollar up.
The USD/JPY pair was also up 0.07% to 107.30 even though Japan's unemployment rate hit a one-year high in March.
The AUD/USD pair fell 0.35% to 0.6441 as the AUD gave up some of its earlier gains.
“The Aussie is in beast mode at the moment,” Chris Weston, head of research at Melbourne brokerage Pepperstone, told CNBC about the AUD’s earlier rally.
Australia avoided the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic and states are starting to loosen strict lockdown measures. Sydney’s Bondi beach re-opened to visitors earlier in the day.
Meanwhile, the NZD/USD pair lost 0.71% to 0.6002 and the USD/CNY pair gained 0.07% to 7.0865.
The GBP/USD pair fell 0.12% to 1.2413 as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned that it was too dangerous to relax lockdown measures in Britain during his first day back at work after his battle with COVID-19.