* Commodity-linked currencies hurt by IMF gold sales news
* USD extends gains after Fed minutes, data
* BOJ skips new initiatives, Shirakawa to speak later
* Euro remains under pressure across board
By Satomi Noguchi
TOKYO, Feb 18 (Reuters) - The dollar rose towards a
seven-month high against a basket of currencies on Thursday after
the International Monetary Fund said it planned to sell more gold
in the market, pushing down bullion prices and commodity-linked
currencies.
The IMF said it would begin phased open-market sales of the
remaining 191.3 tonnes of gold it plans to sell under a programme
launched last year to raise new resources for lending.
[]
The dollar held on to its gains after Wednesday's stronger
U.S. economic data and evidence that the Federal Reserve had
discussed strategies to withdraw monetary stimulus, while fiscal
concerns in the euro zone countries continued to drag on the
euro.
"The gold sale news is weighing on the Aussie especially
against the U.S. dollar, which is seeing a biddish tone," said
Jonathan Cavenagh, currency strategist at Westpac.
"We have a month-end target for 82 for the dollar index and
given the sovereign risks surrounding the euro and the macro
economic pulse getting better for the U.S., we would see every
dip in the dollar as a buying opportunity."
The dollar index <.DXY> was up 0.3 percent at 80.581, not far
from its seven-month high of 80.748 hit late last week.
A weekly close above 80.43 will establish an uptrend for the
dollar in the near term. Charts show the next target at 81.47,
which is the index's June 2009 high, and then 81.90, which is the
50 percent retracement of its fall from 89.62 to 74.17 last year.
Spot gold <XAU=> fell on the IMF news, dragging the Aussie
<AUD=D4> and the New Zealand dollar <NZD=D4> along with it.
The Aussie fell 0.2 percent to $0.8960 <AUD=D4> while the
kiwi <NZD=D4> dropped 0.2 percent to $0.7006.
The dollar pared some of the previous day's gains against the
yen, easing 0.3 percent to 90.97 yen <JPY=> from Wednesday when
it rose as far as 91.39 yen on trading platform EBS, its highest
since Jan. 21, helped by the upbeat U.S. data.
The Bank of Japan kept interest rates on hold and held off on
new policy initiatives, as widely expected. []
The yen added to its recovery as the BOJ disappointed some
who had speculated there might be further monetary easing steps.
Traders are now awaiting comments from BOJ Governor Masaaki
Shirakawa who is due to speak at an embargoed news conference
starting from 0630 GMT.
Traders said the dollar was likely to trade heavily during
Tokyo hours with offers by Japan exporters above 91.50 yen.
Weekly capital flows showed foreign investors bought a net
107.1 billion yen ($1.17 billion) of Japanese stocks last week,
bringing their net buying so far this year to 1.71 trillion yen.
The euro <EUR=> dropped 0.2 percent to $1.3581, faltering
near a nine-month low of $1.3532 struck on Friday, after losing
nearly 1.2 percent on Wednesday, and it shed 0.5 percent to
123.47 yen <EURJPY=R>.
It fell in the previous session after European finance
ministers gave Greece a one-month reprieve to show its deficit
reduction plan was being rolled out effectively.
Michael Hasenstab, co-director of international bonds at
Franklin Templeton and manager of its $15 billion flagship
Templeton Global Bond Fund, told the Reuters Dealing Room online
chatroom that Templeton was underweight the euro.
"Greece's debt dynamics are currently non-sustainable and
require unprecedented adjustments and this will present a
meaningful challenge to the euro area as a whole," Hasenstab
said. []
The euro has fallen almost 5 percent against the dollar since
the start of the year on concerns about the fiscal health of
Greece and other euro zone countries.
Currency speculators raised net euro short positions to a
record high last week, and the euro's bounce earlier this week
was more to do with covering some of those shorts than structural
improvements on the currency union's outlook, traders said.
The yen also gained ground on the crosses, with the
Australian dollar falling 0.7 percent to 81.46 yen <AUDJPY=R> as
the IMF's gold news weighed. The New Zealand dollar fell 0.6
percent to 63.71 yen <NZDJPY=R>.
(Additional reporting by Anirban Nag; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
