TOKYO: The dollar eased in Asia Tuesday amid uncertainty about the Federal Reserve's plans for its huge stimulus programme.
In Tokyo midday trading, the greenback bought 98.73 yen, compared with 98.83 yen in New York and levels above 99 yen in Asian earlier Monday.
The Fed surprised markets by keeping its bond-buying scheme unchanged, confounding economists who had expected the bank to begin reeling it in as the US economy shows signs of strengthening.
On Friday, two days after the Fed announcement, senior bank official James Bullard said the cutbacks could still come this year.
But on Monday, other Fed officials reinforced the message that the central bank needed to see more concrete improvement in the economy before cutting back on the $85 billion-a-month bond-buying scheme.
"Dovish remarks...yesterday failed to lift market sentiment as investors remained cautious over Fed tapering amid contrasting signals from officials," Credit Agricole said.
In other trading, the euro was at $1.3494 against $1.3493 in New York and well off the $1.3529 touched in Asia Monday, while it also eased to 133.22 yen from 133.37 yen.
The single currency suffered selling after European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi voiced concern Monday about rising interest rates on the interbank markets and said the ECB could provide fresh liquidity.
The euro's initial uptick after German chancellor Angela Merkel clinched her third term in a convincing election victory Sunday proved to be short-lived.
"The 'sell the news' response to the German election also obscured any favourable reaction to good German, French and eurozone services (data)," National Australia Bank said.
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