TOKYO: The dollar held steady in Asia Tuesday after sliding on a rebound in oil prices, while the Russian ruble bounced back after its biggest one-day fall in 16 years.
In Tokyo, the greenback fetched 118.44 yen, against 118.40 yen in New York.
The euro eased to $1.2464 from $1.2469, while it was flat at 147.64 yen.
The dollar has climbed since Thursday, when the OPEC oil cartel ignored calls to cut production in the face of a supply glut sending crude prices plunging to five-year lows. The greenback benefits from lower prices as they are considered a plus for the US economy.
However, analysts expect the dollar to resume its uptrend, saying the lift in oil prices may just be a technical correction.
The ruble rose after sinking almost nine percent to 53.9 against the greenback Monday, its worst one-day drop since Russia's debt meltdown in 1998. On Tuesday, it was at 51.2 to the dollar.
The Russian unit has lost 60 percent of its value against the dollar since the start of the year, pummelled by tumbling oil prices and Western sanctions over Moscow's support for Ukrainian separatists.
On Monday, the dollar briefly soared to a fresh seven-year high of 119.15 yen after Moody's cut its credit rating for Japan, putting it below China and South Korea and on par with Israel and the Czech Republic.
Moody's cited "rising uncertainty" over the country's debt situation after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe put off a planned sales tax hike that was aimed at curbing the country's massive public debt.
"It seems Moody's impact (on the currency market) was only limited," Shusuke Yamada, chief FX strategist at Merrill Lynch Japan Securities, told Dow Jones Newswires.
"The underlying trend of the yen's weakness (against the dollar) remains strong over the mid-term."
Investors are keeping tabs on a European Central Bank policy meeting later in the week to see if it unveils any fresh easing measures to fight off deflation, while a closely watched US jobs report will come out on Friday.
The dollar weakened against other Asia-Pacific currencies.
The Australian dollar rose to 85.04 US cents from 84.45 cents the previous day after the country's central bank held interest rates at a record low of 2.5 percent.
The dollar also fell to 32.80 Thai baht from 32.89 baht, to Sg$1.3051 from Sg$1.3083 and to 44.75 Philippine pesos from 44.95 pesos.
The greenback slipped to Tw$31.03 from Tw$31.05, to 1,105.30 South Korean won from 1,114.13 won, and to 61.97 Indian rupees from 62.14 rupees, while it was unchanged at 12,273.80 Indonesian rupiah.
The Chinese yuan weakened to 19.26 yen from 19.34 yen.
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