Dollar gains as Treasury yields top 5%, Aussie slides after RBA hike

By Chibuike Oguh

NEW YORK, Sept 29 (Reuters) - The dollar rose against major currencies on Tuesday as investors positioned for economic data that could offer clues on the Federal Reserve's interest-rate path, with Treasury yields hovering near multi-year highs.

The Australian dollar weakened after the Reserve Bank of Australia raised interest rates as expected.

    The greenback remained near multi-month highs as the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield settled above 5%. Investors were also monitoring concerns about crude supply disruptions linked to the Middle East conflict, which kept Brent crude trading above $100 a barrel.

    The euro was down 0.30% to $1.13365, a three-month low, as the currency struggles in the face of a global energy shock and growing political risk in Europe. 

    "At this point, we're just going data point to data point," said Eugene Epstein, head of trading and structured products at Moneycorp.

   "We have a number of Fed speakers today and we're looking at jobs and inflation data to find out whether or not the current Fed board is justified in the hawkishness that they've been implying."

   The dollar strengthened 0.2% to 0.834 against the Swiss franc, trading at a 16-month high.

   Saudi Arabia has resumed oil loadings from its Red Sea port of Yanbu after restarting operations on the East-West Pipeline, according to trade sources and shipping data, improving the outlook for Middle East oil exports. 

    Brent crude futures <LCOc1> were down 0.69% to $104.56 a barrel. 

US ECONOMIC DATA IN VIEW 

Investors are awaiting August's Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index on Wednesday, which is closely watched by the Fed, followed by September's nonfarm payrolls report on Friday.

Markets now see a near 70% chance of a rate hike by the Federal Reserve at the end of October. 

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro,rose 0.2% to 101.39, hitting its highest level since July 28.

Australia's central bank raised its cash rate to a 15-year high of 4.60% on Tuesday in a unanimous decision, saying inflation was too high and it was prepared to hike further if needed. 

The Aussie fell to its lowest in nearly two months, and was last down 0.36% versus the greenback to $0.6989.

The Japanese yen held steady against the greenback at 157.55 per dollar with markets weighing recent warnings of probable coordinated intervention from Tokyo and Washington.

(Reporting by Chibuike Oguh in New YorkEditing by Peter Graff)