The euro held on to modest gains on Tuesday after surveys showed eurozone business growth remained robust yet below forecasts, and fears of a trade war with the United States kept the single currency trapped in narrow ranges. IHS Markit's Euro Zone Composite Flash Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), seen as an indicator of economic health, showed slower growth than expected.
The PMI data was "certainly not strong enough to bring forward the timeline for an eventual rate hike for the (European Central Bank), but also probably not weak enough to push that timeline out any further," said Omer Esiner, chief market analyst at Commonwealth Foreign Exchange in Washington. With the US central bank likely to raise interest rates at least twice more this year and the European Central Bank unlikely to raise interest rates until the second half of 2019, traders remained cautious about the outlook of the euro.
The euro was trading 0.14 percent higher at $1.1706 after hitting an intraday low of $1.1652 in early London trading, Reuters data showed. The US dollar was 0.23 percent lower against the euro and five other major currencies as comments last week from US President Donald Trump that criticized the currency's strength continued to weigh on sentiment. The greenback fell 0.26 percent against the yen to 111.04 yen.
In Turkey, a surprise decision from the central bank to leave interest rates unchanged sent the lira 2.7 percent lower to 4.866 lira per dollar. Bitcoin, the world's best-known cryptocurrency, gained 6 percent to surpass $8,000 on Tuesday on the Bitstamp exchange , its highest since May 22. Ethereum, the second-largest digital currency, gained 5.54 percent to $474.22 on Bitstamp.