By Laura Matthews and Alun John

NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) – The dollar was steady on Tuesday, as investors remained cautious ahead of a week packed with central bank decisions that could help set the outlook for monetary policy.

Signs of an extremely resilient U.S. economy helped the currency recover from a recent 15-month low, as well as persistent weakness in Europe.

U.S. consumer confidence increased to a two-year high in July amid continued optimism about the labor market, though worries about a recession persisted, a survey showed on Tuesday.

The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index rose to 117 this month, the highest reading since July 2021, from 110.1 in June. Economists polled by Reuters had expected the index to increase to 111.8.

“The U.S. consumer confidence report suggests the labor market is still not expected to weaken, which should point to strong buying trends going forward,” said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda in New York.

“The consumer isn’t weakening and that could disrupt the disinflation process throughout the rest of the year. This report should bolster the Fed hawk argument that we might need to see more tightening beyond July.”  

The rose 0.118% to 101.510, hitting a two-week peak earlier of 101.65, with the euro down 0.31% to $1.1028.

The euro fell for a fifth successive session on Tuesday as evidence of a slowdown in Europe builds after a recent survey showed demand for loans in the euro zone hitting a record low in the second quarter, and separate data showed deterioration of business confidence in Germany this month. This follows disappointing Purchasing Manager Indexes on Monday that came in below expectations for the euro zone as a whole.

“The outlook continues to deteriorate and that is weighing on sentiments a little bit,” said Moya. “Overall, we are entering a trading range because we have a couple of rate decisions that could likely dictate the next moves in FX.”

Markets have plenty more to watch this week as the Federal Reserve concludes a rate-setting meeting on Wednesday followed by the European Central Bank (ECB) a day later and the Bank of Japan on Friday, as well as earnings from heavyweight companies. Both Google-owner Alphabet (NASDAQ:) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:) are due Tuesday.

The Japanese yen strengthened 0.14% versus the greenback at 141.26 per dollar, struggling to recover from heavy losses on Friday on a Reuters report that the Bank of Japan (BOJ) is leaning towards keeping its yield control policy unchanged at this week’s policy meeting. Meanwhile, Sterling was last trading at $1.2842, up 0.08% .

In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin last rose 0.17% to $29,188.02.

last rose 0.29% to $1,855.56.

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Currency bid prices at 10:48AM (1448 GMT)

Description RIC Last U.S. Close Pct Change YTD Pct High Bid Low Bid

Previous Change

Session

Dollar index

101.5100 101.4100 +0.12% -1.913% +101.6500 +101.1800

Euro/Dollar

$0.0000 $1.1062 -0.15% +3.08% +$1.1087 +$1.1041

Dollar/Yen

0.0000 141.5050 -0.06% +7.86% +141.6200 +141.2100

Euro/Yen

155.80 156.51 -0.45% +11.05% +156.8800 +155.6300

Dollar/Swiss

0.0000 0.8695 +0.01% -5.95% +0.8700 +0.8676

Sterling/Dollar

$1.2844 $1.2825 +0.13% +6.19% +$1.2864 +$1.2810

Dollar/Canadian

1.3193 1.3168 +0.20% -2.62% +1.3209 +1.3147

Aussie/Dollar

$0.6779 $0.6740 +0.59% -0.54% +$0.6785 +$0.6727

Euro/Swiss

0.9560 0.9622 -0.64% -3.39% +0.9631 +0.9561

Euro/Sterling

0.8586 0.8624 -0.44% -2.92% +0.8637 +0.8587

NZ

Dollar/Dollar $0.6215 $0.6204 +0.16% -2.13% +$0.6230 +$0.6191

Dollar/Norway

10.1040 10.0620 +0.39% +2.92% +10.1540 +10.0200

Euro/Norway

11.1476 11.1149 +0.29% +6.23% +11.2038 +11.0974

Dollar/Sweden

10.4076 10.4077 -0.27% +0.00% +10.4508 +10.3500

Euro/Sweden

11.4806 11.5117 -0.27% +2.91% +11.5265 +11.4677

(Reporting Laura Matthews in New York; Additional reporting by Rae Wee in Singapore and Alun John in London; Editing by Shri Navaratnam, Lincoln Feast, Christina Fincher and Jonathan Oatis)