Friday 17 July 2009

CURRENCIES: Dollar Gains In Asia, Taking Cues From Stocks

CURRENCIES: Dollar Gains In Asia, Taking Cues From Stocks

By Lisa Twaronite

The dollar gained in Asian trading Friday, taking its cues from mostly firmer equities markets across the region and shrugging off earlier losses on reports of fatal blasts in Indonesia.

The yen had gained earlier, on reports that a series of blasts hit hotels in central Jakarta early Friday, claiming at least nine lives.

Foreign exchange markets "are again taking their lead from equities, with U.S. dollar and Japanese yen generally firmer," said Adam Cole, global head of FX strategy at RBC Capital Markets.

The dollar bought 93.72 yen, up from 93.28 yen in late North American trading on Thursday. Tokyo trading volume was reported to be light, ahead of a Japanese market holiday on Monday.

The dollar index (DXY), which tracks the greenback against a trade-weighted basket of six major rivals, was at 79.311, up from 79.222 late Thursday.

The euro bought $1.4129, down from $1.4146 late Thursday, while the British pound fetched $1.6404, down from $1.6440.

Currencies markets had little reaction to reports that U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said the U.S. wants China to move more quickly to a free-floating exchange rate mechanism for the yuan.

Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary: http://www.djnewsplus.com/access/al?rnd=OgBNNDYHfkY7HuExqLXI%2FA%3D%3D. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 17, 2009 03:21 ET (07:21 GMT)

No comments:

Post a Comment