FOREX-Offshore yuan pulls off all-time low after tentative moves from Beijing to curb falls

* China fixes offshore yuan rate below 7 and firmer than
expected
* Yen retrieves gains as appetite for risky assets returns
* Graphic: World FX rates in 2019 http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh

(Updates prices, adds context, chart and quotes)
By Olga Cotaga
LONDON, Aug 6 (Reuters) - The yuan pulled back from an
all-time low in offshore trade on Tuesday after Beijing appeared
to take steps to prevent it weakening further, following a sharp
drop that prompted the U.S. government to declare China was
manipulating its currency.
China said on Tuesday it was selling yuan-denominated bills
in Hong Kong, in a move seen as shrinking yuan liquidity and
curtailing short selling of the currency. The People's Bank of China also fixed the daily reference
rate for the onshore Chinese yuan at 6.9683, firmer than the
expected 6.9871, and below the key 7 rate through which it broke
on Monday.
Analysts said these moves suggested Chinese authorities may
not be ready yet to let the yuan, also known as the renminbi,
weaken much further.
"The decision of the PBOC to set the CNY fix stronger is the
key catalyst driving financial market sentiment today and
countered the decision in Washington to formally cite China as a
currency manipulator," said Derek Halpenny, head of global
markets research at MUFG.
The yuan CNH=EBS was last up by 0.4% in offshore trade at
7.0675 against the dollar after plunging to 7.14 late on Monday,
its lowest level since offshore trading began in 2010.
In onshore trade the yuan CNY=CFXS opened at 7.0699 per
dollar, versus its last close at 7.0498.
If the Chinese central bank fixes the rate at or above 7,
this will likely be an "indication they are ready for the
renminbi weakening phase," said Stephen Gallo, forex strategist
at BMO Capital Markets.
The small rebound in the Chinese currency shifted investors'
focus away from safe-haven currencies, pushing the Japanese yen
and Swiss franc lower.
The yen was last down by 0.4% at 106.40 to the dollar,
pulling back from a 16-month high of 105.52 it reached overnight
excluding the January flash crash. The franc was 0.1% weaker,
bouncing off a 25-month high it reached on Monday.
For the first time in more than a decade China on Monday let
its currency break through 7, a key support level, in a sign
that Beijing might be willing to tolerate more currency weakness
as Washington threatens to impose more tariffs.
That prompted the U.S. Treasury Department to say for the
first time since 1994 that China was manipulating its currency,
taking the trade row into uncharted territory and adding to
frenzied selling in global financial markets.
The U.S. decision to label China a manipulator came less
than three weeks after the International Monetary Fund said the
yuan's value was in line with China's economic fundamentals,
while the U.S. dollar was overvalued by 6% to 12%.
On Tuesday, China's official Communist Party newspaper said
that the United States was "deliberately destroying
international order". In a further sign of deteriorating ties,
China's commerce ministry announced overnight that Chinese
companies had stopped buying U.S. agricultural products in
retaliation against Washington's latest tariff threat.
The U.S.-China trade war escalated last week when President
Donald Trump unexpectedly said he would impose 10% tariffs on
$300 billion of Chinese imports from Sept. 1., essentially
imposing a levy on all Chinese goods coming into the United
States. Since then, the yuan lost 3.4% of its value against the
greenback in offshore trade.
Some analysts say that China has used this opportunity to
let its currency weaken because the yuan should trade lower
given how bleak Chinese economic fundamentals are.
China is "using the context of the trade war to justify" a
beleaguered yuan, said BMO's Gallo.
"We focus too much on (the) U.S.-China bilateral trade war
and we should be focusing more on the long-term structural
issues," Gallo said. "The bigger issue here is that China's
state-owned enterprises have a lot of debt, are unprofitable and
output per worker is in decline... A strong renminbi does not
fit into this picture."
Elsewhere, the euro EUR=EBS was flat at $1.1198 after
jumping to an 18-day high against the dollar overnight as the
spread between U.S. and German 10-year government bond yields
shrunk to its lowest in 1 1/2 years. The index which tracks the
dollar against a basket of six major currencies .DXY was also
flat at 97.51.
The pound was up 0.5% at $1.2199 GBP=D3 , but not too far
from the 31-month low it reached last week. Against the euro,
sterling hit a new 23-month low on Tuesday of 92.49 EURGBP=D3 ,
but was last up by 0.5% at 91.79 pence.

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Chinese offshore yuan hits all-time low against dollar overnight
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