* Dollar up on safety bid after Goldman charges
* Euro down on persistent Greek debt plan uncertainty
* EU, IMF Greece meeting delayed; Greek debt spreads widen
(Updates prices, adds comment, changes byline)
By Wanfeng Zhou
NEW YORK, April 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar rose on
Monday as concerns over fraud charges against Goldman Sachs and
a delay in planned talks on an aid package for Greece stoked
safe-haven demand.
Further Chinese measures announced over the weekend to rein
in the surging real estate market added to worries about the
global economic outlook and fueled risk aversion.
Stock prices worldwide came under pressure, while
higher-yielding, riskier currencies such as the Australian
dollar fell.
"The market is focusing on sort of the main risks to
economic growth," said Jessica Hoversen, fixed income and
currency analyst at MF Global Ltd in Chicago.
"You have what's going on with the financial industry.
Greece continues to be a headline. People are (also) a little
afraid that the Chinese economy is going to start slowing in
the wake of all these measures," she added.
The dollar typically gains in times of greater aversion to
risk as investors put money into Treasury securities for
safety.
In afternoon New York trading, the euro <EUR=> traded down
0.2 percent at $1.3475 after earlier falling to $1.3415, its
lowest in more than a week.
The euro zone currency also earlier fell as low as 123.18
yen, its lowest in about three weeks, before recovering to
trade flat at 124.44 yen <EURJPY=R>.
Traders said the 61.8 percent retracement of the February
to April rally was the next support level at 122.75 yen.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc <GS.N> faced rising regulatory and
legal pressure on Monday as allegations that the bank duped
clients fueled momentum for regulatory reform on both sides of
the Atlantic. For more, see []
Investors are also worried about how a European
Union-International Monetary Fund aid plan to help Greece avoid
a debt default might be implemented.
Talks with EU and IMF officials, expected to start on
Monday, were delayed to later in the week, Greece said, because
of the volcanic ash cloud disrupting flights across Europe.
[]
The premium which investors demand to buy Greek government
bonds rather than German benchmark bonds rose to record levels
on Monday as uncertainty over the aid package unsettled
investors. []
Against the yen <JPY=>, the dollar rose 0.2 percent to
92.37, after trading lower during most of the European session.
The pair got a boost after a gauge of the U.S. economy's
prospects compiled by The Conference Board, a private research
group, hit a record high in March. []
Technical analysts saw the next support at the 200-day
moving average at around 91.35.
"It seems like we are reversing some of the risk aversion
trades from this morning as people get more comfortable with
the Goldman news," said Boris Schlossberg, director of FX
research at GFT in New York.
"Clearly, there is a higher degree of caution. But there
has been no additional bad news on Goldman. So for now,
investors are in a 'see-no-evil, hear-no-evil' kind of mode."
The ICE Futures' dollar index, a gauge of the greenback's
value against a basket of currencies <.DXY> rose 0.2 percent to
81.018, though it remains well below a 10-month high of 82.240
set in March.
The pound <GBP=D4> fell 0.4 percent to $1.5303 on
persistent concerns that Britain's upcoming general election
will produce no clear winner. Opinion polls ahead of the May 6
vote indicate growing support for the Liberal Democrats, the
third party in the race.
(Additional reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by
Diane Craft)
