* Dollar gains limited after Friday's poor U.S. jobs data
* Market wary before FOMC on Tuesday
* Euro near 3-month peak vs dollar; yen near 15-year highs
(Updates prices, adds Japanese finmin comment on yen)
By Steven C. Johnson and Wanfeng Zhou
NEW YORK, Aug 9 (Reuters) - The dollar rose against major
currencies on Monday as investors squared up positions a day
ahead of the week's Federal Reserve monetary policy
announcement.
Gains were limited by Friday's disappointing U.S. jobs
data, which showed the economy continues to struggle. And
analysts said markets are pricing in at least some form of
modest easing when the Fed meets on Tuesday.
"Investors are likely to consolidate positions ahead of
tomorrow afternoon's policy meeting," said Omer Esiner, chief
market analyst at Commonwealth Foreign Exchange in Washington.
"While some risk of new policy action is already priced
into the greenback's valuation, more stimulus would make a
dollar recovery difficult in the near-term." For a preview of
Fed meeting, see []
The euro fell 0.4 percent to $1.3226 <EUR=EBS>, off a
three-month peak of $1.3334 on Friday.
The euro added to losses after it failed to hold above the
$1.33 level, which triggered automatic sell orders at $1.3250
and $1.3240, traders said.
Traders also kept a close eye on the yen, which rose to
85.02 yen versus the dollar on EBS on Friday, just shy of a
15-year peak of 84.82 yen hit last November. It was last up 0.4
percent at 85.84 yen <JPY=EBS>.
There were substantial automatic "stop loss" trades that
would be triggered just under option barriers at 85 yen,
potentially triggering a further slide, traders said. More
stops were sitting below 84.82 yen, with option barriers at
84.75 yen seen rolling off later in the week, they said.
Markets fear Japanese authorities could intervene to weaken
the yen so that strength does not derail a fragile, export-led
recovery. Japan's finance minister expressed concern about yen
strength on Monday. []
The dollar also against the Swiss franc, up 0.9 percent to
1.0482 francs <CHF=> while sterling fell 0.3 percent to $1.5898
<GBP=D4>.
SHORT DOLLAR POSITIONS
Data showed currency speculators increased bets against the
U.S. dollar in the latest week and increased their net yen long
positions to the highest level since December.
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Graphic on CFTC positioning data:
http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/10/CFTC_CURR.html
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The anti-dollar bias in markets could keep the euro fairly
buoyant in the near term, though profit-taking is expected as
the euro approaches $1.35, analysts said.
That level almost coincides with a 50 percent retracement
of the single European currency's fall from a November peak of
$1.5145 to a four-year trough of $1.1876 hit in June.
It's possible Fed officials will add to a negative dollar
bias on Tuesday if they "talk tough and make further hints
about how they could intervene," said Andrew Wilkinson, senior
analyst at Interactive Brokers Group in Greenwich,
Connecticut.
Markets have speculated that the Fed could revive a plan to
buy Treasury and mortgage debt to give the economy a boost,
though Wilkinson said he thinks officials will hold off on
taking action for now.
Data on Friday showed that overall U.S. payrolls fell by
131,000 in July. Private employment, a better gauge of labor
market health, rose a modest 71,000, below forecasts for a gain
of 90,000. []
By contrast, data on Monday suggested the euro zone was in
better shape. Euro zone investor morale surged []
while German exports rose more than forecast. []
(Reporting by Steven C. Johnson and Wanfeng Zhou; editing by
Leslie Adler)
