U.S. dollar declines as risk appetite eases

NEW YORK, March 26 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar traded lower against most major currencies on Monday as investors' appetite for safe-haven currencies like the greenback declined amid eased tensions of U.S.-China trade relations.

Global markets were severely shocked last week after U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive memorandum that could result in heavy tariffs on up to 60 billion U.S. dollars of imports from China as well as harsher restrictions on Chinese investments.

Investors' risk appetite eased, however, after Chinese Vice Premier Liu He had a phone conversation with U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Saturday, urging concerted efforts to maintain the stability of China-U.S. trade ties.

Mnuchin said on Sunday that he was "cautiously hopeful" an agreement can be reached with China, according to Fox News.

Analysts said that fears of a trade war are ebbing and investors are moving back into asset classes that offer relatively attractive returns.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, fell 0.46 percent at 89.027 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro was up to 1.2456 dollars from 1.2367 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound increased to 1.4228 dollars from 1.4145 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar was up to 0.7734 dollar from 0.7713 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 105.25 Japanese yen, higher than 104.84 Japanese yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar fell to 0.9448 Swiss franc from 0.9467 Swiss franc, and it increased to 1.2867 Canadian dollars from 1.2863 Canadian dollars. Enditem