SINGAPORE, Nov 20 Reuters The dollar slid to a twomonth low on Monday, extending a downtrend from last week as traders reaffirmed their belief that U.S. rates have peaked and turned their attention to when the Federal Reserve could begin cutting rates.

The yuan struck threemonth highs in both the onshore and offshore markets, propped up by China39;s central bank, which gave the Australian and New Zealand dollars a leg up, as the two are often used as liquid proxies for the yuan.

The dollar index in Asia trade bottomed out at 103.53, its weakest level since Sept. 1, extending its nearly 2 decline from last week the sharpest weekly fall since July.

Against the weaker greenback, the euro hit its highest since August at 1.09365, while the yen firmed at a onemonth high of 148.68 per dollar.

Markets have priced out the risk of further rate increases from the Fed after a slew of weakerthanexpected U.S. economic indicators last week, particularly after an inflation reading that came in below estimates.

Focus now turns to how soon the first rate cuts could come, with futures pricing in a 30 chance that the Fed could begin lowering rates as early as March, according to the CME FedWatch tool.

Market pricing for FOMC policy is likely to remain pretty steady, so the dollar should have very few catalysts to move it around this week, said Carol Kong, a currency strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia CBA. If we do see risk appetite improve again, then the dollar can…