* Euro falls across the board, sterling drops
* France says barriers to Greece deal remain
* Chinese tightening fears, premier comment weigh on risk
* Most investors sidelined ahead of Fed, BoJ meetings
(Updates prices, adds quote)
By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss
NEW YORK, March 15 (Reuters) - The euro slid against the
U.S. dollar on Monday, hampered by a lack of progress on a
financial aid package for debt-strapped Greece.
Aside from Greece, concerns about further tightening by
Chinese monetary authorities also spooked investors in riskier
assets. Stocks eased on Wall Street and higher-yielding
currencies like the Australian dollar fell broadly. That gave a
boost to the safe-haven U.S. dollar.
Euro zone finance ministers are expected to agree on Monday
to a way of providing Greece with financial aid to tackle its
debts. France, however, warned against expecting any hard
figures and said barriers to a deal remained. For more see
[].
While the market focused on the ministers' meeting in
Brussels, analysts said anyone hoping for a quick resolution to
the Greek debt issue would be disappointed.
"There's a lot of back and forth on Greece. France and
German finance ministers practically said there is no financial
aid announcements this week. And that's one of the factors
weighing on the euro." said Vassili Serebriakov, senior
currency strategist, at Wells Fargo in New York.
In midday New York trading, the euro <EUR=> was down 0.8
percent on the day at $1.3658, retreating from a four-week high
just shy of $1.3800 hit on Friday after euro zone industrial
orders data beat forecasts.
Data released on Monday, however, showed euro zone
employment fell in the fourth quarter, highlighting the
region's fragile economy. []
Traders also said there were reports in the market of large
option-related sell orders on the approach to $1.3800, limiting
any upside momentum on the euro.
The ICE Futures' dollar index, meanwhile, reversed Friday's
losses to trade firmer after weakness in U.S., Asian, and
European stocks prompted investors to shy away from riskier
assets.
Comments by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Sunday, who
rejected calls by the international community to revalue the
yuan, saying its currency is not undervalued, also unsettled
the market, analysts said. []. That spurred
investors to seek shelter in the U.S. dollar.
Also on Monday, Moody's said the credit ratings of the
United States, UK, France, Germany and Spain were safe but
risks to their top-notch status had grown. []. The
news contributed to the dollar's firmer tone.
The dollar <.DXY> traded up nearly 0.6 percent against a
basket of currencies at 80.331. Against the yen <JPY=>, the
greenback was flat at 90.44 yen.
Data on Friday showed currency speculators trimmed bets in
favor of the dollar for a second straight week and raised bets
against the euro to a record high. []
Sterling was the day's biggest mover, falling nearly 1.0
percent against the dollar <GBP=D4> to $1.5039 after hitting
session lows of $1.5019 on persistent worries about a weak UK
economic outlook and on uncertainty ahead of a general election
expected in May. []
Still many investors remained sidelined ahead of monetary
policy meetings by the Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan this
week.
The Bank of Japan starts a two-day meeting on Tuesday at
which, sources said, it is leaning towards easing monetary
policy again. []
In contrast, solid retail sales data offered the U.S.
dollar support against the yen, heading into a week when the
Fed's policy-setting committee meets on Tuesday.
(Editing by Andrew Hay)
