By Gina Lee

Investing.com – The dollar was down on Tuesday morning in Asia but climbed to its strongest level in more than a month against the Japanese yen. An overnight rise in U.S. Treasury yields due to investors betting on an early U.S. Federal Reserve increase in interest rates gave the U.S. dollar a little boost.

By 8:52 ET (11:52 GMT), the that monitors the greenback against other currencies fell 0.04% (1:52 GMT)

It climbed 0.9% to 115.43

With the Australian dollar at a near-two week low of $0.7184, the pair edged higher by 0.13 percent to 0.7200. The pair increased by 0.7% to 0.6789

This pair rose 0.32%, to 6.3727. The release earlier in the day revealed that December’s 50.9 was better than expected.

The exchange rate climbed 0.07% to 1.3481. From Monday when the pair fell to $1.3431, it was unchanged.

After a vacation, the markets of Australia, Japan and China were all reopened.

As a result of long-term U.S. Treasury Yields jumping 12.5 basis point overnight to reach 1.6420%, the dollar rose to 115.395 dollars for the very first time since Nov. 25.

The Fed is expected to raise interest rates by 2022. Investors continue to believe this, and money markets are pricing in an initial hike in May as well as two additional hikes by 2022.

Shinichiro Kadota (Barclays senior FX strategist) said that “the market is pricing in a more aggressive U.S. rates hike scenario or at minimum the risk thereof in 2022 and that certainly remains the key support to the dollar.”

Global COVID-19-related cases continue to increase, in part due to the new omicron version. The delays in global travel and public services are continuing. This surge is also expected to slow down the opening of some U.S. schools following the holiday season.

Investors remained optimistic that the lockdowns would be avoided. On Monday, however, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a third dosage of the drug. Pfizer Inc. (NYSE.:)/ BioNTechSE (F.:) The COVID-19 vaccine is for children 12-15 years old. Also, the regulator shortened the waiting time for booster shots from six to five months following primary doses.