FOREX-Dollar finds footing after two-week lows in Fed’s wake

* Dollar index dips to 2-week low * European trade subdued by holiday in London * Graphic: World FX rates https://tmsnrt.rs/2RBWI5E (Adds details, updates prices; changes byline, dateline; previous LONDON) By Chuck Mikolajczak NEW YORK, Aug 30 (Reuters) – The dollar stabilized after hitting two-week lows on Monday, as the greenback attempted to recover from Friday’s drop on comments from U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell that were interpreted as dovish. The dollar had one of its biggest daily percentage declines of the month on Friday after Powell said tapering could begin this year, but the central bank was in no hurry to raise interest rates. The dollar index hit a two-week low at 92.595 before firming slightly, and was last up 0.001% at 92.671. “The market is still digesting Powell’s dovish tapering speech and you are probably seeing the market is a little confused that Treasury yields are not getting the go-ahead for lift-off here, and that is going to be data dependent on everything with inflation and the job markets,” said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA in New York. Benchmark 10-year notes last rose 5/32 in price to yield 1.297%, from 1.312% late on Friday as investors began to turn their focus to Friday’s U.S. payrolls report, which will provide more insight into the Fed’s likely policy path. Expectations are for non-farm payrolls to increase by 750,000 in August, with the unemployment rate forecast to dip to 5.2% from 5.4%. Other data likely to be eyed this week include inflation figures from Europe as well as gauges of the U.S. and Chinese manufacturing sectors. The dollar briefly ticked higher following data on Monday that showed pending home sales declined for a second straight month in July. The euro was up 0.06% to $1.1799 after hitting its highest in more than three weeks at 1.181. The Japanese yen weakened 0.03% versus the greenback at 109.90 per dollar. Overall trade in Europe was subdued because of a public holiday in Britain. Moya noted the holiday tends to disrupt normal currency flows and month-end rebalancing could also have helped the dollar somewhat. For the month the dollar index has gained about 0.7%. ======================================================== Currency bid prices at 10:58AM (1458 GMT) Description RIC Last U.S. Close Pct Change YTD Pct High Bid Low Bid Previous Change Session Dollar index 92.6580 92.6700 +0.00% 2.975% +92.7910 +92.5950 Euro/Dollar !RIC !RIC !RIC !RIC !RIC !RIC {EUR=EBS} is {EUR=EBS} {EUR=EBS} is {EUR=EBS} is {EUR=EBS} {EUR=EBS} invalid is invalid invalid% invalid% is invalid is invalid Dollar/Yen !RIC !RIC !RIC !RIC !RIC !RIC {JPY=EBS} is {JPY=EBS} {JPY=EBS} is {JPY=EBS} is {JPY=EBS} {JPY=EBS} invalid is invalid invalid% invalid% is invalid is invalid Euro/Yen 129.67 129.54 +0.10% +2.17% +129.6900 +129.4900 Dollar/Swiss !RIC !RIC !RIC !RIC !RIC !RIC {CHF=EBS} is {CHF=EBS} {CHF=EBS} is {CHF=EBS} is {CHF=EBS} {CHF=EBS} invalid is invalid invalid% invalid% is invalid is invalid Sterling/Dollar $1.3757 $1.3761 -0.03% +0.70% +$1.3774 +$1.3734 Dollar/Canadian 1.2589 1.2611 -0.16% -1.13% +1.2634 +1.2575 Aussie/Dollar $0.7297 $0.7310 -0.18% -5.15% +$0.7318 +$0.7286 Euro/Swiss 1.0809 1.0746 +0.59% +0.02% +1.0826 +1.0748 Euro/Sterling 0.8576 0.8567 +0.11% -4.04% +0.8581 +0.8567 NZ $0.7006 $0.7008 -0.03% -2.44% +$0.7014 +$0.6988 Dollar/Dollar Dollar/Norway 8.6445 8.7095 -0.72% +0.70% +8.7295 +8.6470 Euro/Norway 10.1998 10.2769 -0.75% -2.55% +10.3000 +10.2018 Dollar/Sweden 8.6161 8.6361 -0.19% +5.12% +8.6520 +8.6170 Euro/Sweden 10.1666 10.1855 -0.19% +0.90% +10.2069 +10.1662 (Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Dan Grebler)