us dollar and euro banknotes are seen in this illustration taken july 17 2022 reutersdado ruvicillustration singapore july 20 reuters  the us dollar retreated on wednesday as the euro extended its overnight bounce on relief europe might be able to avoid the worst fears concerning energy shortages and on the chance the european central bank may deliver a more aggressive rate hike russian gas flows via the nord stream 1 pipeline are seen restarting on time on thursday after the completion of scheduled maintenance reuters reported on tuesday read more the euro was up nearly 02 in the early asia trade to 10239 having posted its strongest daily gain in a month of 075 overnight aiding sentiment was news that the ecb is considering raising interest rates by a largerthanexpected 50 basis points at their meeting on thursday read more if we do see russian gas flows resume tomorrow that will be good news for the eurodollar and in the near term euro can get a little boost and get away further from parity said carol kong a currency strategist at commonwealth bank of australia but i am still worried about the eurodollar i think downsides still persist  the potential hawkish pivot from the ecb may not be able to give sustained support the euro has lost about 23 since the beginning of july and broke parity for the first time in two decades last week following a redhot us inflation print and fears about a sharp economic downturn in the eurozone read more other major currencies similarly rallied on the back of the weakening greenback and as central banks around the world become more hawkish in their efforts to tame soaring inflation the us currencys retreat has also coincided with reduced expectations of a supersized 100basispoint rate hike at next weeks federal reserve policy review the aussie was steady at 069055 after rising 13 on the day overnight also the largest in a month minutes of the reserve bank of australias rba july policy meeting out the day earlier showed that the central bank sees a need for more policy tightening to curb inflation earlier on wednesday rba governor philip lowe also suggested that rates could at least double from current low levels read more bank of england governor andrew bailey said on tuesday that a 50basispoint rate hike will be among the choices on the table at the boes next meeting read more the us dollar index measure against a basket of key currencies was down 008 to 10658 well off its twodecade peak of 10929 last week ahead of the feds meeting next week markets are pricing in a 232 chance of a 100 bp rate hike  with expectations of the jumbo rate increase easing after policymakers were quick to pour cold water on it read more as markets continue to price out fomc rate hikes from the markets i think that will take some pressure off the us dollar but i dont think any dollar weakness will last long just given the deteriorating global growth outlook said cbas kong conversely the japanese yen remained an outlier on wednesday morning and last traded 138155 per dollar as the bank of japan seems determined to stand by its dovish stance sticking to its dovish guns will entail sharpening policy tradeoffs for the boj the most pressing of which is the sharp drop in the jpy which has fallen a gutwrenching 2021 since the september fomc said vishnu varathan head of economics and strategy at mizuho bank in singapore over in the cryptoverse bitcoin was down about 12 to 23000 having bounced off the 20000 mark in recent days reporting by rae wee in singapore and alun john in hong kong editing by shri navaratnam