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FOREX-Euro holds gains, kiwi, Aussie hold near fresh peaks

Published 05/10/2009, 09:29 PM
Updated 05/10/2009, 09:32 PM

* Euro near 7-week peak vs dollar, 1-month vs yen

* Kiwi hits highest in nearly 5 months vs dollar

* Aussie hits seven-month peaks on dollar, yen

TOKYO, May 11 (Reuters) - The euro hugged its latest highs against the dollar and the yen on Monday, after surging in the wake of smaller-than-expected U.S. job losses, while rising investor confidence underpinned the Australian and New Zealand dollars.

The dollar index held close to a four-month low set on Friday after data showed the U.S. economy shed 539,000 jobs in April, bolstering hopes that the worst of the economic slump may be over, even though the jobless rate touched a 25-year high.

The New Zealand dollar climbed 0.4 percent to $0.6080 on Monday, its strongest in nearly five months, and the Australian dollar gained to hit a fresh seven-month peak in early Asian trade at $0.7714 before slipping to $0.7655. Analysts said with several risk events out of the way, such as stress tests for U.S. banks and the jobs numbers, investors seemed more confident, although it was hard to see what there was in the way of near-term events to keep up that momentum.

As investor confidence grows, short-term investors have been using both the dollar and the yen as funding currencies to buy into commodity-related and other riskier currencies.

"There seems to a sea-change at work in terms of general sentiment. It will be an interesting week to see how sustainable that is because there's nothing really in terms of event risk," said Sue Trinh, senior currency strategist at RBC Capital Markets in Sydney.

She said currency markets would in that case look to a rally in equity markets for momentum.

"While that freight train continues to run it's hard to stand in the way of it."

Wall Street gained on Friday after the jobs numbers but Asian share markets were mixed on Monday and the S&P futures were down 0.7 percent, indicating a weak U.S. start later.

The euro was steady at $1.3630 after brushing a seven-week high at $1.3660 on trading platform EBS. It climbed 1.7 percent on Friday, helped by a break through its 200-day moving average, a key resistance level on technical charts.

Analysts said buying by funds using trading models was behind some of the action, with the dollar index also breaking down to a four-month low on Friday, crashing through its 200-day moving average and breaking another support level all in one day.

The euro was steady at 134.21 yen after briefly hitting a one-month high at 134.80 earlier. (Reporting by Charlotte Cooper; Editing by Edwina Gibbs) (Reuters Messaging: charlotte.cooper.reuters.com@reuters.net; (Email: charlotte.cooper@thomsonreuters.com; +81 3 6441 1870))

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