FOREX-Dollar steadies after 3 days of losses as trade deal hopes dim

* Graphic: World FX rates in 2019 http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh

By Saikat Chatterjee
LONDON, Nov 19 (Reuters) - The dollar stabilised against a
broad basket of other currencies on Tuesday after three
consecutive days of losses as investors waited for the release
of the minutes of the U.S. central bank meeting at end-October
when policymakers had cut interest rates.
Global macro hedge funds had ramped up their dollar selling
for a third week according to latest weekly positioning data and
some market watchers say hawkish policy minutes could trigger a
dollar rebound.
The greenback has hit a trough since late last week as
hopes for a preliminary trade deal between the United States and
China evaporated.
Expectations had grown that Washington and Beijing would
sign a so-called "phase one" deal this month to scale back their
16-month-long trade war but those hopes received a setback on
Monday after CNBC reported China is pessimistic about agreeing
to a deal, which suggests a resolution to perhaps the biggest
risk to the global economy remains elusive. "Trade headlines is dominating sentiment but in terms of the
key event risk, the release of the Fed minutes will be a big one
for market participants," said Morten Lund, a senior FX
strategist at Nordea.
Against a basket of its rivals .DXY , the greenback was
broadly steady at 97.84 after weakening more than 0.6% in the
last three sessions. It had hit a one-month high of 98.45 on
Nov. 13.
Elsewhere in the currency market, the Australian dollar
AUD=D3 fell 0.16% to $0.6799 and declined 0.26% to 73.82 yen
AUDJPY= .
Australia's central bank "agreed a case could be made" for
another cut in the 0.75% cash rate at its November meeting given
unwelcome weakness in wages growth and inflation, minutes
published on Tuesday showed.
Sterling held firm around $1.2950 with the pound buoyed by
polls pointing to a victory by the ruling Conservatives in
upcoming elections.
In the onshore market, the yuan CNY=CFXS fell to a
two-week low of 7.0295 per dollar.