Dollar gives up upper hand to yen

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TOKYO: The dollar edged down against the euro and yen in Asian trade on Tuesday, moving back toward a more than four-month low against the perceived safe-haven Japanese currency as crude oil prices continued to tumble.

Crude oil futures approached a 20 percent drop since the beginning of the year, with both U.S. crude CLc1 and global benchmark Brent LCOc1 down more than 1 percent.

China set another firm fix for its currency on Tuesday and stepped up a verbal campaign to convince markets it remains in control. But the yuan slipped slightly in early trade despite what dealers called aggressive intervention to support the currency.

The dollar slipped about 0.2 percent from late North American trade to 117.56, after plumbing a low of 116.70 on Monday, its deepest nadir since Aug. 24.

The euro added about 0.2 percent to $1.0876.

"Interest rate differentials don't mean anything at the moment. Risk sentiment, oil prices, and China - people are just focusing on that now," said Kaneo Ogino, director at foreign exchange research firm Global-info Co in Tokyo.

The People's Bank of China set the mid-point for the yuan at 6.5628, barely changed from the previous strong fix and higher than its late levels on Monday.