By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch MADRID (MarketWatch) — The U.S. dollar eased against most major rivals on Tuesday after comments by China’s central bank triggered gains for equity markets and the yield of the benchmark U.S. Treasury note fell back as well, lessening the greenback’s appeal. The ICE dollar index DXY -0.17% , which measures the U.S. unit against six other major currencies, fell to 82.342 from 82.412 late Monday in North America. The WSJ Dollar Index XX:BUXX -0.24% , a rival gauge with a slightly wider comparison basket, slipped to 74.16 from 74.26. Global equities made a solid push higher after a People’s Bank of China official said the central bank will guy rates to a �reasonable range,� giving rise to hopes the central bank will make a move towards ending the cash crunch that has triggered big losses for China stocks. The dollar lost some of its safe-haven appeal and investors pushed back into perceived riskier assets such as stocks. The euro EURUSD +0.16% — which makes up more than half of the comparative basket used for the ICE dollar index by weighting — moved to flat against the dollar at $1.3121 from $1.3122. The euro/dollar pair hasn’t been particularly sensitive to higher U.S. Treasury yields over recent weeks, but that may be changing, Crédit Agricole said Tuesday. Net speculative positioning in the euro became positive for the first time in four months, wrote Crédit Agricole, citing the most recent data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. “Now that the room for euro short-covering has disappeared, the euro’s sensitivity to yield is likely to grow,� wrote Crédit Agricole forex strategy chief Mitul Kotecha. “The fact that the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield differential with [German] bunds has widened sharply will be difficult for euro-dollar to ignore, with attendant negative consequences for the currency,� he said. On Monday, the U.S. 10-year note yield 10_YEAR -1.10% rose 3.5 basis points to 2.572%, its highest close since August 2011, building on last week’s climb of 39 basis points. U.S. Treasuries rose on Tuesday, with the yield in 10-year notes dropping 3 basis points to 2.52%. Treasury prices — which move inversely to yields — slid last week when Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the central bank may taper its bond-purchase program later this year if economic data continue to show an improvement. Some Fed officials on Monday sought to soften worries about the end of monetary stimulus from the central bank. Later Tuesday, the market is due to receive reports on U.S. consumer confidence in June, durable-goods orders in May, and two separate reports on housing prices in April. The housing reports will reflect activity in April, before there was a spike in mortgage rates. The dollar on Tuesday lost ground against the yen USDJPY -0.38% , trading at ¥97.37, down from ¥97.66 on Monday. The dollar earlier Monday had been buying more than ¥98. The British pound GBPUSD +0.21% held steady at $1.5449. The buck eased against the Canadian dollar USDCAD -0.30% , buying C$1.0467 compared with C$1.0482 late Monday. The Australian dollar AUDUSD +0.30% , meanwhile, eased to 92.63 U.S. cents from 92.74 cents.

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