The dollar held at a near three-week high as investors sought the relative safety of the U.S. currency.
That kept the euro pegged back at 1.1360 and reapplied pressure on the main emerging market currencies following a decent start to the year for most of them.
Sterling was a shade firmer at $1.2910 after data showed British workers’ pay growth hit a new 10-year high and employment had grown by much more than expected in the three months to the end of November.
Read More : Theresa May wants Irish treaty to break Brexit impasse
Otherwise traders were still waiting to see whether UK Prime Minister Theresa May can push her Brexit plans through the country’s bitterly divided parliament.
May had offered tweaks on Monday by seeking further concessions from the European Union on a backup plan to avoid a hard border between the British-administered province of Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.
But she had also refused to rule out leaving the EU at the end of March without any deal.
“Any upside for sterling in the near term may be limited,” said Capital Economics analyst Liam Peach. “Uncertainty would continue during the extended negotiations and there is no guarantee that it would last for only a short period of time.”
There was demand too for the safe-haven yen with the Japanese currency last at 109.40 per dollar. Against a basket of currencies, the dollar was barely changed at 96.393.
In commodities, the global growth worries pulled oil prices lower with Brent down 55 cents at $62.19 and U.S. crude futures off 39 cents at $53.41. [O/R]
Euro zone government bond yields also fell, with Germany’s 10-year yields down at 0.22 percent from Friday’s one-month high of 0.28 percent, and Spain’s helped to a near six-month low by record demand at a new bond sale.
The European Central Bank holds its first meeting of the year on Thursday.
