Dollar gains slightly in Asia

SINGAPORE: The US dollar recovered slightly against the euro and yen in quiet Asian trade Monday as investors awaited bond sales by financially beleaguered European countries later this week, analysts said.

The euro was trading at $1.2908 against the greenback in afternoon Asian trade from $1.2912 in New York on Friday, and bought 107.25 yen from 108.44.

The US dollar changed hands at 83.09 yen compared with 83.06 yen on Friday. Markets in Japan are closed for a public holiday and will reopen Tuesday.

"It's been a very, very quiet start to the week. It's pretty hard to read into it," said David Forrester, currency strategist for Barclays Capital in Singapore.

Forrester said markets were looking to Italian, Spanish and Portuguese bond sales taking place later this week for leads.

"I think the markets are basically going to be waiting on that before it makes any move," he told AFP.

If the bond sales prove popular, it would help alleviate stress on the financially strapped nations by raising them cash, easing regional debt contagion fears and pushing up the value of the euro.

Weak US jobs data was however casting a shadow over the greenback, as the economy created just 103,000 jobs in December, many fewer than the 150,000 forecast by analysts, Forrester stated.

Against Asian units, the dollar rose to 1.2967 Singapore dollars from 1.2964 on Friday, to 44.275 Philippine pesos from 44.10, to 30.57 Thai baht from 30.27 and to 9,047.5 Indonesian rupiah from 9,004.25.

It fell to 29.22 Taiwan dollars from 29.32.