USD bulls manage to defend 90.00 mark, for the time being

The greenback edged higher during the Asian session on Tuesday, helping the key US Dollar Index to extend overnight modest recovery bounce from the 90.00 neighborhood. 

The USD continued with its weakening trend on Monday and was being weighed down by growing market expectations for lessening monetary policy divergence between the Fed and other major central banks, namely BOJ and ECB. 

Investors even shrugged off Friday's US data that showed core inflation rose slightly more than expected in December. The data reaffirmed that the Fed remains on track to raise interest rates up to three times in 2018 but failed to lend any support to the greenback. 

The index now seems to have found some technical support near the 90.00 round figure mark, with a disappointing release of Japanese PPI figures helping to ease the prevalent strong bearish sentiment surrounding the buck. 

Today's US economic docket features the release of Empire State Manufacturing Index, which is unlikely to be a game changer but might still assist traders to grab some short-term trading opportunities.