Dollar edges lower in thin trade

The dollar was lower against the yen in thin trade Monday
(December 23rd) as a holiday in Japan and forthcoming
Christmas celebrations kept markets subdued.

USD/JPY eased from a five-year high of 104.64 hit on Friday to
trade around 103.99 ahead of US
inflation data due out later.

In equally subdued trade EUR/USD was steady at 1.3682, having
risen from a two-week trough of 1.3625 last week.

Last week the dollar rose against most major currencies after
the Federal
Reserve said it would scale back bond purchases by $10 billion
to $75 billion a month.

The greenback’s retreat also helped the Australian and Canadian
dollars move off more than three-year lows.

Sterling was one of the big gainers on Monday, climbing 0.25 per
cent to reach 1.6369. The pound was also higher against the euro,
with EUR/GBP sliding 0.2 per cent to hit 0.8358.

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