* Euro turns higher, boosted by stocks, commodities
* U.S. GDP data on soft side, briefly weighs on dollar/yen
* G20 meeting unlikely to yield surprises
(Recasts, updates prices, adds quote, changes byline)
By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss
NEW YORK, June 25 (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar fell against
the euro and commodity-linked currencies such as the Australian
dollar on Friday as investors felt more comfortable buying
riskier assets after stocks came off lows and commodities
jumped sharply,
U.S. stocks staged a minor comeback, while oil prices shot
higher, fueling risk appetite and prompting buying in the euro
and the Australian, Canadian and New Zealand dollars. These
last three currencies have become symbols of risk appetite in
the developed world, moving in tandem with U.S. stocks.
"There's some tentative risk appetite in the market as we
see stocks rallying and commodities up sharply," said Dean
Popplewell, chief currency strategist at OANDA in Toronto.
"Fundamentally, there is no reason for the euro to rise
given the euro zone debt crisis."
Funding issues in the euro zone are still an issue, as
banks need to repay some 442 billion euros in one-year loans to
the European Central Bank next week.
In afternoon trading, the euro rose 0.4 percent against the
dollar to $1.2383 <EUR=EBS>. Despite the euro's gains, however,
the euro zone single currency was still down 0.6 percent on the
week but up 0.5 percent for the month of June so far.
The dollar, however, fell 0.2 percent against the yen to
89.33 after sliding to a fresh one-month low at 89.21
<JPY=EBS>, according to electronic trading platform EBS. It was
the dollar's fourth straight daily drop against the yen and, at
1.3 percent for the week, the third straight week of declines.
Dollar losses versus the Japanese currency were partly
triggered by data which showed U.S. gross domestic product
growth was slower than previously expected in the first
quarter. For more see [].
"A bit of a disappointment with this (GDP) report," said
Matthew Strauss, senior currency strategist at RBC Capital
Markets in Toronto. "It's on the softer side of expectations
and with the recent slew of soft data from the U.S., it
actually supports this week's FOMC cautious statement."
The Australian dollar rose 1.0 percent versus the greenback
<AUD=D4> to US$0.8756 while the New Zealand currency also
gained 1.0 percent to US$0.7154 <NZD=D4>. The Canadian dollar
was also up, pushing the U.S. dollar down 0.9 percent to
C$1.0354 <CAD=D3>.
Meanwhile, traders said a weekend meeting of the Group of
20 rich and developing nations is unlikely to produce any
surprises.
Analysts say currency issues were unlikely to come to the
fore as China took steps last week to de-peg its currency.
"On the G20, I don't expect too much, because the big
announcement already happened last week with China saying it
would let its currency strengthen a bit," said John Doyle,
senior currency strategist at Tempus Consulting in Washington.
(Additional reporting by Nick Olivari, Vivian Rodrigues, and
Steven C. Johnson; Editing by James Dalgleish)
