European session review: USD firms, as markets digest reports about Johnson & Johnson's (JNJ) vaccine pause while awaiting U.S. inflation data

European session review: USD firms, as markets digest reports about Johnson & Johnson's (JNJ) vaccine pause while awaiting U.S. inflation data

USD strengthened against its major counterparts in the European session on Tuesday as market participants digested the reports that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) had called for a pause in using Johnson & Johnson's (JNJ) single-dose COVID vaccine due to some blood clotting issues.

The FDA notes in its tweets that these issues "appear to be extremely rare", having affected only six people in the U.S., nonetheless, the recommendation to pause the use of the J&J vaccine is being made "out of an abundance of caution."

The U.S. Dollar Index (DXY), measuring the U.S. currency's value relative to a basket of foreign currencies, went up 0.14% to 92.27.

The U.S. currency is also supported by an advance in U.S. Treasury yields ahead of the release of the U.S. inflation data for March, which is due at 12:30 GMT and is anticipated to show an acceleration in inflation to +2.5% y/y in March from +1.7% y/y in the previous month. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury rose to 1.68% early Tuesday.