FOREX-Euro hobbles around 4-week low vs dollar as traders look for end to U.S.-China trade war

* Japanese yen rises on Hong Kong protest escalation
* British pound up despite Moody's warning
* Graphic: World FX rates in 2019 http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh

By Olga Cotaga
LONDON, Nov 11 (Reuters) - The euro held steady against the
U.S. dollar on Monday after matching a four-week low earlier as
the greenback maintained its gains on optimism that the United
States and China would roll back tariffs that have hurt global
growth.
Officials from both countries said late last week that a
rollback of some tit-for-tat tariffs had been agreed as part of
a preliminary deal, that has still to be finalised, aimed at
ending their trade war. Even though that was subsequently denied by U.S. President
Donald Trump on Friday, he did not completely rule out a deal
and U.S. benchmark Treasuries held above a key support level at
1.9%, buoying the currency. US/N
Moves were slight as traders kept a wary eye on further news
on the U.S.-China trade war, and against the safe-haven Japanese
yen the dollar fell as market participants reacted to the
escalating political confrontations in Hong Kong.
"Market participants have become more cautious over the
potential positive impact for global growth from a partial
U.S.-China trade deal following comments from President Trump,"
said Lee Hardman, currency analyst at MUFG.
"Nevertheless, market participants are likely to remain
optimistic that the U.S. and China are moving closer to
finalizing a partial trade deal by the end of this year,"
Hardman said.
The euro traded at $1.1023 EUR=EBS , flat but not far from
the Oct. 15 low of $1.10165 it fell to on Friday.
The Japanese currency was last up 0.3% at 108.98 against the
dollar JPY=EBS .
The index which tracks the dollar against six major
currencies was neutral at 98.317, flirting with a four-week low.
The Chinese yuan weakened 0.3% to 7 per dollar in offshore
trade CNH=EBS on fresh violence in Hong Kong, where police
fired live rounds at protestors, with Cable TV and other media
reporting at least one person being wounded. Disappointing economic data also hurt sentiment toward the
yuan, as China's producer prices fell the most in more than
three years in October, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data
showed on Saturday, while the country's consumer prices rose at
their fastest pace in almost eight years. Elsewhere, the British pound was up 0.1% at $1.2797 GBP=D3
despite the fact that Moody's warned on Friday it might cut its
rating on Britain's sovereign debt again, saying that neither of
the main political parties in next month's election was likely
to tackle high borrowing levels which Brexit had made even
harder to fix.