WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The U.S. dollar gained against most major rivals on Monday as optimism about U.S.-China trade deal faded amid reports China wants another round of discussion before signing the 'phase one deal.'
Although the U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Friday that the U.S. and China have reached a 'very substantial phase one deal,' reports on Monday that China wants another round of talks before signing the agreement have raised some uncertainty about the deal.
Additionally, scant details about the deal cast doubts over the durability of the partial preliminary deal.
The deal hardly touches on the real sticking points of technology transfer and intellectual property theft.
According to a report in Bloomberg News, China may send a delegation led by Vice Premier Liu He to finalize a written deal that could be signed at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit next month in Chile.
Another source reportedly told Bloomberg that China wants a planned tariff hike in December to be scrapped in addition to the hike scheduled for this week.
The dollar index was last seen at 98.53, up 0.23% from Friday's close.
Against the Euro, the dollar gained 0.11% to 1.1026, and against Sterling, it was up nearly 0.7% at 1.2562, recovering well after the sharp setback it suffered on Friday.
Eurozone industrial production logged a fall of 2.8% year-on year in August, after easing 2.1% in July. Economists had forecast an annual decline of 2.6%. This was the tenth consecutive month of contraction in the industry sector, the longest streak since the eurozone debt crisis eight years ago.
Month-on-month, industrial output grew 0.4% in August, offsetting a 0.4% fall in July. This was the first rise in three months.
On the Brexit front, Britain and the European Union said over the weekend that a lot more work would be needed to secure a Brexit agreement.
The safe-haven Yen moved around the flat line against the dollar, after recovering from an early low of 108.04. It was at 108.40 a dollar in late afternoon trades.
Against the Aussie, the dollar was up 0.26% at 0.6776, and was up by around the same margin against the loonie as well, with the Dollar-Loonie pair trading at 1.3239.
Swiss franc was somewhat flat against the greenback with the pair trading at 1.3239.
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