Asian session: The dollar held a decline

01:30 Australia National Australia Bank's Business Confidence August -3 6

The dollar held a decline from yesterday versus most major peers amid prospects a Russian bid to get Syria to surrender its chemical weapons may avert a U.S. military strike, damping demand for haven currencies. “If the establishment of international control of chemical weapons in the country will help avoid military strikes, we will immediately start working with Damascus,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after meeting with his Syrian counterpart in Moscow yesterday. Syria’s government said it welcomed the idea.

President Barack Obama addresses the nation today, seeking to make the case that U.S. security is at stake if the Syrian regime’s use of chemical weapons against civilians goes unanswered.

The yen fell to a two-week low versus the euro as Bank of Japan policy makers agreed that the effects of monetary easing are firmly taking hold, according to minutes of last month’s meeting.

The Australian and New Zealand dollars extended a two-day gain before Chinese data that may add to signs of a rebound in the world’s second-largest economy. China’s factory production increased 9.9 percent in August from a year earlier, compared with a 9.7 percent gain in the previous month, the National Bureau of Statistics is predicted to say today, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey. Retail sales probably advanced 13.3 percent after July’s 13.2 percent increase, a separate poll forecast.

EUR / USD: during the Asian session the pair rose to $ 1.3270

GBP / USD: during the Asian session, the pair trading around the $ 1.5700

USD / JPY: during the Asian session the pair traded in the range of Y99.45-75

Tuesday sees a fairly muted calendar, with largely second tier data set for release on both sides of the Atlantic. Once again, markets will be awaiting President Obama's address to the nation, expected late evening Eastern Time. The European calendar gets underway at 0645GMT, when the French July industrial output data is set to be published. Italian second quarter final GDP data will be released at 0800GMT. Analysts expect the report to show a q/q fall of 0.2% and an annualised fall of 2.0% - both in line with the first revision. Also at 0800GMT, Germany's opposition SPD shadow minister Christiane Krajewski presents a program on ending the euro crisis, in Berlin. Back in Europe, at 1230GMT, ECB Executive Board Member Joerg Asmussen will sit on a monetary policy panel in Brussels.