Dollar falls against Asian currencies

The dollar fell in Asian trade Friday after an overnight rally on Wall Street hinted at an easing of the US recession, prompting investors to look for riskier bets elsewhere.
The greenback was weaker against the yen as Japanese investors repatriated overseas assets in preparation for the end of the country’s fiscal year on March 31 when they close their books, dealers said.
The dollar eased to 98.30 yen in Tokyo afternoon trade from 98.52 in New York late Thursday. The euro firmed to 1.3573 dollars from 1.3522 but slipped to 133.43 yen from 133.55.
Sharp gains by financial stocks on Wall Street reflected ‘easing concerns of another crisis knocking the economy down further,’ wrote NAB Capital Strategist John Kyriakopoulos in a note to clients.
The dollar, which has been considered a safe haven currency in recent months, loses some of its appeal when risk appetite improves and investors hunt elsewhere for assets with higher returns.
‘Markets are moving based on a sentiment of hope,’ said Daisuke Uno, chief strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.
Revised data in the United States earlier showed a steep 6.3 per cent pace of decline in economic output in the fourth quarter of 2008, although it was better than the 6.6 per cent fall anticipated by analysts.
A separate report showed the number of new jobless claims in the United States rose by 1.2 per cent to 6,52,000 during the week ending March 21, although analysts said that the pace of unemployment growth may be losing steam.
Meanwhile markets gave a muted response to data from Japan, which showed consumer prices in the world’s second largest economy were unchanged in February from a year earlier.
The core CPI, which excludes volatile fresh food products, stayed flat despite analysts’ expectations of a 0.1 per cent drop.
Against regional Asian currencies, the dollar edged down to 1.5078 Singapore dollars from 1.5082 a day earlier, to 11,483.75 Indonesian rupiah from 11,580, to 33.75 Taiwan dollars from 33.82, and to 35.31 Thai baht from 35.42.
It rose to 48.17 Philippine pesos from 48.13 and to 1,343.05 South Korean won from 1,330.40.
Analysts played down the idea of the greenback losing its global dominance soon, but said Geithner would have to be more careful with his public pronouncements.
Ahead of the G20 meeting next week markets reacted nervously to Geithner’s comments who does not yet seem to have grasped the effect of his statements on the financial markets, said analysts at Commerzbank.

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Source:Agence France-Presse . Tokyo