1st LD Writethru: U.S. dollar falls after hitting 11-year peak

The U.S. dollar eased on Tuesday after touching its highest level in more than 11 years against several major peers.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major currencies, hit the level of 95.570 last seen in September 2003 during the morning session.

With no major data came out of the country, U.S. dollar was later under pressure as a leading Japanese economic official said the dollar could not sustain more gains.

Etsuro Honda, an economic adviser for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, told the Wall Street Journal that the dollar's strength against the yen might be at a "kind of upper limit in the exchange rate's comfort zone." The greenback decreased 0.34 percent against the Japanese yen following the remarks. The dollar index was down 0.12 percent at 95.347 in late trading.

Meanwhile, investors were awaiting the closely-watched U.S. nonfarm payroll report due out Friday to get a more comprehensive view of the recovery of the country's labor market.

Moreover, officials of the European Central Bank will discuss details of its 1.1 trillion euro bond-buying program on Thursday, which analysts said may lift the euro afterwards.

In late New York trading, the euro went down to 1.1178 dollars from 1.1188 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound increased to 1.5366 dollars from 1.5365 dollars. The Australian dollar rose to 0.7822 dollar from 0.7769 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 119.69 Japanese yen, lower than 120.15 yen of the previous session. The greenback edged up to 0.9611 Swiss franc from 0.9596 Swiss franc, and slipped to 1.2487 Canadian dollars from 1.2540 Canadian dollars. Endite