Asian Market News

Monday May 12, 06:56 AM
Forex - Dollar mixed in Asian trade ahead of data

TOKYO (Thomson Financial) - The dollar was mixed against major currencies in afternoon trading in Asia on Monday ahead of a series of data this week which may provide further clues on the depth of the U.S. slowdown.

Among U.S. data due this week include retail sales on Tuesday, consumer price inflation on Wednesday and housing starts on Friday.

The dollar's gains this morning were largely due to short covering ahead of the release of

earnings by U.S. hedge funds, said Yuji Saito, head of foreign exchange sales at Societe Generale (Paris: FR0000130809 - news) .

At 1:50 p.m. (0450 GMT), the dollar was at 103.35 yen, compared to 102.93 yen in late New

York trading Friday,while the euro was at $1.5412 versus $1.5391.

'The rise in the dollar was largely driven by the supply and demand conditions after the currency initially came under selling pressure on renewed worries about the credit crisis,' said Saito.

Saito was referring to news Friday that insurer American International Group Inc. posted a wider-than-expected $7.81 billion first-quarter loss and disclosed plans to raise $12.5 billion in the coming months.

Also, Citigroup Inc (NYSE: C - news) . said it hopes to shed between $400 billion and $500 billion in assets and increase revenue by 9 percent over the next few years as it tries to recover from big losses tied to deterioration in the mortgage and credit markets.

'These news shocked the market, which had become too optimistic about the credit situation,'

said Ryohei Muramatsu, head of Group Treasury Asia at Commerzbank (Xetra: 803200 - news) .

Traders were also monitoring crude oil prices which had topped $126 a barrel on Friday.

Tokyo 1:50 p.m. (0450 GMT)

U.S. dollar

yen 103.35

Swiss franc 1.0472

Euro

U.S. dollar 1.5412

yen 159.32

Swiss franc 1.6142

pound 0.7914