By Mark DeCambre, MarketWatch

The Turkish lira on Tuesday was retreating against the U.S. dollar as Ankara told its domestic banks to slow the process of currency transactions -- a fresh attempt to tamp down speculative bets on lira, according to reports.

Bloomberg News reported (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-20/turkey-orders-some-fx-settlement-delays-to-stem-speculation) that Turkey's bank regulator told financials to settle retail transactions of at least $100,000 one day later than the normal same-day turnover, with that move coming as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party, known by the Turkish acronym AKP, look to retain power in the country.

Less than two weeks ago, Turkey's national election board nullified mid-April election results of the Istanbul mayoral race that Erdogan's ruling party ostensibly lost and ordered a rerun set to take place on June 23.

The election redo and Erdogan's attempts to more closely control the emerging market's currency have created a backdrop that foreign-exchange traders and emerging-market investors have found worrisome.

The lira was off 0.4% against the U.S. dollar. The dollar last bought 6.0445 lira, compared with 6.0285 lira late Monday in New York.

An Aussie cut?

The Australian dollar retreated a day after strengthening against rivals amid a surprise election result. The Aussie traded at $0.6876, versus $0.6909 late Monday in New York, off 0.4%.

The Australian currency has come under pressure after minutes from the Reserve Bank of Australian, suggests that the central bank is willing to cut its benchmark interest rates.

"In the minutes, there was even more emphasis on the cut case, with members noting that their central forecast scenario was based on the assumption that interest rates will be in line with market pricing, which suggests lower rates over the next six months," wrote Charalambos Pissouros, senior market analyst at JFD Group, in a Tuesday research report.

On Monday, the Aussie rose after the nation's federal election produced an upset victory for incumbent Prime Minister Scott Morrison, defying opinion polls that had predicted a win for the opposition.

What are other currencies doing?

The offshore yuan was at 6.9318 versus the dollar, up about 0.1%, while its onshore counterpart was at 6.9059, down a little less than 0.1%, at last check.

Those currency moves come as the U.S. Commerce Department said it would grant 90-day licenses for some companies to continue exporting to Huawei Technologies. Huawei is viewed as one front of the Sino-American trade tensions.

Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar, as measured by the ICE U.S. Dollar Index , a gauge of the buck against a half-dozen rivals, was up 0.1% at 98.049.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 21, 2019 08:57 ET (12:57 GMT)