WTI Crude oil prices slipped lower on Tuesday on continued concerns over a global oil glut as traders booked profits on a surge of almost 3 percent yesterday. Profit taking curbed the upward momentum driven by talks of a meeting by OPEC to freeze output.
Cable fell in Asia on Tuesday on speculation of further UK policy easing, while the dollar held its ground amid growing confidence that the US Federal Reserve could raise interest rates later this year.
GBP/USD slipped 0.4 percent to 1.2964 following comments to the Times by Bank of England policymaker Ian McCafferty who said that more quantitative easing was likely to be required if the UK's economic decline worsens.
The Dollar index, bounced back from earlier losses to edge up 0.1 percent to 96.474. It held well above last week's low of 95.003, which was its lowest since late June.
Fed funds futures prices showed traders now see almost a 50-50 chance of a US rate hike by December, according to CME Group's Fed Watch tool. That compared with 30 percent only last week, before strong jobs numbers were reported on Friday.
USD/JPY rose to 102.52 some way off last week's low of 100.68, while EUR/USD edged 0.1 percent lower to 1.1077.
The kiwi dollar slipped slightly on expectations that the Reserve Bank of New Zealand will cut interest rates by 25 basis points to 2.00 percent tomorrow. NZD/USD trades at 0.7125 in early European trade, 0.35 percent lower.
