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Dollar edges off recent highs

Dollar edges off recent highs
Trade gap data due on Wednesday
By MarketWatch
Last Update: 5:34 AM ET July 11, 2005

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- The dollar moved slightly off recent highs vs. the euro and the yen on Monday, as markets continued to react to Friday's jobs data as well as braced for news on the trade gap between the U.S. and the rest of the world.

The euro was up 0.4% at $1.2015, and the dollar was down 0.2% at 111.96 yen in European moves.

"The focus now may shift to the trade data, and the concern is likely to be that the data shows some renewed deterioration because of the relative strength of U.S. demand growth. This will make the market a little less happy to hold long U.S. dollar positions going into the data," said analysts from the Royal Bank of Scotland.

The May trade gap is expected to stay steady at $57 billion, according to economists polled by MarketWatch. That data is due out Wednesday.

The dollar had eased vs. the euro and rose against the yen Friday after U.S. payroll growth in June came in at 146,000. That's 48,000 under the 194,000 that had been expected by economists surveyed by MarketWatch. But hiring over April and May was revised higher by a total of 44,000 jobs.

"On balance, the dollar weakness was more a result of positioning than from the information content of the release," said analysts at Barclays Capital on Monday.

The British pound also continued to recover against rivals following Thursday's attacks. The pound rose 0.4% on the dollar and 0.1% on the Swiss franc.


LINK: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/yhoo/story.asp?source=blq/yhoo&siteid=yhoo&dist=yhoo&gui...