The U.S. dollar firmed across the board on Tuesday, garnering safe-haven bids, after a disappointing set of Chinese trade figures hurt the yuan and the Australian and New Zealand currencies, with European risk-sensitive currencies also sliding on the worsening global outlook.

The dollar index rose 0.4% to 102.52, moving further away from Friday's one-week low in the wake of a mixed U.S. jobs report, which pointed to a cooling but still resilient labor market.

China's imports and exports fell much faster than expected in July, data on Tuesday showed, with imports down 12.4% from a year earlier while exports contracted by 14.5%, in another sign of the country's faltering economic recovery and subdued global demand.

On top of that Moody's late on Monday cut credit ratings of several small to mid-sized U.S. banks and said it may downgrade some of the nation's biggest lenders. It warned that the sector's credit strength will likely be tested by funding risks and weaker profitability.

The Aussie , a proxy for risk-sensitive currencies that is directly impacted by the yuan, weakened to US$0.6497 against the U.S. currency, its lowest since June 1. It last traded down 0.5% at US$0.6539. The New Zealand dollar dropped to US$0.6035, its weakest level in two months and was last down 0.7% at US$0.6063.

While currency moves had been minimal early in the Asian day, the greenback extended its gains in Europe and North America, as risk sentiment turned fragile and Wall Street shares sold off.

In other currencies, sterling fell 0.3% to $1.2745, after a survey showed British retailers in July logged their slowest sales growth in 11 months.

The euro dropped 0.4% to $1.0957, while the risk-sensitive Swedish and Norwegian crowns both tumbled against the dollar.

The U.S. dollar rose 0.7% to 143.40 yen .

Source : Reuters