The dollar pared some of last week's losses and gained on the major currencies on Monday as investors reassessed the chances of foreign central banks cutting back their US currency holdings.
The yen fell after the policy chief of Japan's ruling party said he opposed an interest-rate hike, raising doubts among traders about the pace of Japanese economic growth.
Speculation last week, fuelled by Chinese officials over the threat of a wider move out of dollar-based assets by overseas central banks, drove the greenback to multi month lows against most major currencies.
Analysts, however, said the weekend had given investors enough pause to realise that while some central banks may have tweaked their currency portfolios, this was not the start of a wave of diversification to the dollar's detriment.
"When the dust has settled investors are again realising that we've been here before with respect to lip-service and jaw-boning, and time and again very little has surfaced," said David Mozina, Lehman Brothers head of New York foreign exchange strategy.
Earlier in the session, traders bought both the dollar and euro against the yen after Shoichi Nakagawa, policy chief of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, told Reuters he opposed lifting interest rates from 0.25 percent, saying the impact would be "large."
That seemed to run counter to the more hawkish note sounded last week by Bank of Japan Gov. Toshihiko Fukui, who said authorities could raise rates pre-emptively.
By late afternoon in New York, the dollar was up nearly 0.5 percent on the day at 118.17 yen, while the euro was around at 151.29 yen up about 0.2 percent from Friday and near last week's record high of 151.52 yen, according to Reuters data.
The yen may come under further pressure if Japanese growth comes in below expectations when Japan releases its July-September growth. Economists polled by Reuters expect it to have expanded 0.2 percent, the same pace as in April-June.
The euro was down 0.3 percent against the dollar to $1.2802, nearly a cent off the 2-1/2-month high reached Friday after China's central bank chief reiterated plans to shift some of China's $1 trillion currency reserves out of dollars.
The Australian dollar was set for its biggest daily loss against the US dollar in nearly two months, after the Reserve Bank of Australia said the country's severe drought would hurt economic growth in 2006-07. The Australian dollar was last down 0.7 percent at $0.7619.