Asian session review: the dollar rose slightly against most currencies

During today's Asian trading, the US dollar rose against the euro and the Japanese yen.

The epidemiological situation in Europe continues to put pressure on investor sentiment. France is due to host a defense council on Wednesday to discuss tougher quarantine measures. Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned about the possibility of strengthening control over the implementation of quarantine measures by the federal government, noting that not all federal states take them seriously.

Meanwhile, investors are waiting for a speech by US President Joe Biden, who plans to present an infrastructure spending plan on Wednesday.

The ICE index, which tracks the dollar's performance against six currencies (euro, swiss franc, yen, canadian dollar, pound sterling and swedish krona), rose 0.09%.

The yen fell 0.35% against the US dollar, despite the Japanese data. Retail sales in Japan in February decreased by 1.5% per annum, according to official data. The rate of decline slowed down compared to January (2.4%). Experts on average expected a drop of 2.8%. Japan's jobless rate in February remained at 2.9% for the fourth month in a row. This is the lowest figure since July last year. Analysts had expected an increase of up to 3%.