Tokyo - The dollar eased against the yen on Tuesday as a rally fuelled by last week's US jobs report faded, while worries that Greece could leave the eurozone put pressure on the euro.
The greenback was at 118.43 yen in Tokyo midday trade against 118.64 yen in New York on Monday afternoon.
The euro bought $1.1329 compared with $1.1325 in US trade while falling to 134.20 yen from 134.35 yen.
Friday's strong jobs growth figures raised expectations the Federal Reserve will bring forward an interest rate hike this year and sent players on a dollar-buying spree.
“The good US employment report drove the dollar up two yen, but before that, the currency was range-bound for a long time,” said Keisuke Hino, a foreign-exchange trader at Mizuho Bank in New York.
“It feels like everybody has done their buying, so it's natural for the greenback to fall,” he told Bloomberg News.
The euro is facing selling pressure with a European Union summit on Thursday as Greece and its creditors are at loggerheads over the country's bailout.
Greece's newly elected leaders have pledged to stick by their demands for a renegotiation of the stringent bailout demands.
Ahead of a European Union summit Thursday, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis are asking for bridging loans so they can come up with an austerity-free reform deal to run from September 1.
But European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker warned he did not expect any new deal to be reached at the meeting in Brussels, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel pressed Greece to present a “sustainable” finance plan.
AFP