Euro tiptoes higher again as ECB eyed

LONDON: The euro extended gains on Tuesday on growing expectations that any concerns the European Central Bank flags about its strengthening at a meeting this week will have a limited impact.

"Any attempt to jawbone the currency lower by the ECB will be limited in its impact as the broader market expects policymakers to stick to their plan of gradually unwinding its policy stimulus," said Peter Rosenstreich, head of market strategy at Swissquote in Switzerland.

The euro climbed 0.1 percent to $1.1905, notching up meagre gains as most currencies traded broadly unchanged from overnight ranges as tensions over North Korea remained high.

It has gained more than 13 percent against the dollar this year and is up more than 5 percent on a trade-weighted index calculated by the ECB since April.

Despite those chunky gains and the large swings in favour of the euro in latest positioning data, analysts say that any pushback from ECB policymakers at their meeting on Thursday would have a limited impact.

JP Morgan strategists estimate that a halving of the outstanding long euro positions in the currency market -- a very low probability event -- would only trigger a 2 percent drop in the euro.

Political tensions kept the dollar on the back foot against the yen and the Swiss franc.

North Korea has been observed moving what appeared to be an intercontinental ballistic missile towards its west coast, South Korea's Asia Business Daily reported on Tuesday, citing an unidentified intelligence source.

The dollar's index against a basket of six major currencies  slipped 0.15 percent to 92.508.