The dollar sold off across the board on Tuesday, touching a 15-year low below 83 yen as a break of technical support levels in several pairs sparked a stampede out of the US currency. With concerns growing about intervention by Japanese authorities to weaken the yen, the Japanese currency in particular got a boost after Japan's prime minister won a leadership vote.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan won an unexpectedly decisive victory over party heavyweight Ichiro Ozawa, who had been more strident in his calls to intervene to weaken the yen. The euro's advance began when it pared early losses after US retail sales rose more than expected in August, notching the largest gain in five months.
Once the single currency broke above the $1.2920 to 30 area, a level that had held since August, it kept going to a one-month high of $1.3033. It was last up 1.1 percent at 1.3019. The dollar fell to a 15-year low of 82.92 on electronic trading platform EBS and 82.93 on Reuters. It last traded at 82.96, down 0.9 percent on the day.