Oil prices slipped further on Tuesday, as Goldman Sachs warned that August's price rally was overdone and that a proposed oil production freeze at current near-record levels would not help rein in an oversupplied market.
WTI crude was down 40 cents, or 0.84 percent, at $47.01 per barrel after dropping 3 percent yesterday.
The dollar eased lower against the yen early on Tuesday, while the New Zealand dollar rose after the nation's central bank governor said he did not see the need for a rapid succession of interest rate cuts.
USD/JPY fell 0.2 percent to 100.120 amid a pullback in Japanese stocks which lifted the safe-haven yen.
The greenback had bounced up to almost 101.00 yen overnight following hawkish-sounding comments by Federal Reserve Vice Chair Stanley Fischer before it lost steam.
EUR/USD crept up almost 0.3 percent to 1.1347, stepping off an overnight low of 1.1271. While views expressed by various Fed officials over the past week have impacted the dollar, a wait-and-see mood has begun to take hold ahead of possibly the most decisive speech of them all – by Fed Chair Janet Yellen at the annual meeting of central bankers in Jackson Hole Wyoming this Friday.
Kiwi rose 0.6 percent to 0.7330 after Reserve Bank of New Zealand Governor Graeme Wheeler said the current interest rate track involves further monetary easing but did not see the need for a rapid series of rate cuts.
NZD/USD climbed to a 15-month high of 0.7351 mid-month, as it has proved resilient to falling cash rates at home given they remain far higher relative to those of other developed economies. The RBNZ in early August cut interest rates by 25 basis points to a record low of 2.0 percent and said further policy easing may be needed.
The Australian dollar was up 0.2 percent at 0.7642, tracking the kiwi higher.
