* U.S. data in focus, especially Friday's jobs report
* U.S. Treasury yields reaction to economic data eyed
By Kaori Kaneko
TOKYO, Jan 4 (Reuters) - The dollar edged down from a
four-month high against the yen but climbed against other majors
on Monday, the first trading day of 2010, as investors focus on
U.S. data this week that could add to optimism about the economy.
Market players are looking for clues to the contents of
Friday's important U.S. December jobs reports starting with
figures on manufacturing for December, which are due on Monday
and include an employment component. <ECONUS>
"The market is keeping to the trend set at the end of last
year, which is to buy the dollar," said Hiroshi Maeba, executive
director of FX trading at Nomura Securities.
"But a steady recovery in the U.S. economy is not warranted
and there is still a strong possibility that the dollar will
resume falling if the employment numbers are worse than
expected," Maeba said.
The Institute for Supply Management's December manufacturing
index due later in the day, is expected to show a reading of 54.0
versus 53.6 in November. A private-sector jobs report and weekly
jobless claims are also slated for this week.
The minutes from the Federal Reserve's December monetary
policy meeting are also scheduled to be released on Wednesday.
Higher longer-dated U.S. Treasury yields underpinned the
dollar's recent gains against the yen, traders said, with
benchmark Treasury yields rising above 3.9 percent on Thursday,
in sight of last year's high around 4 percent. [] <US10YT=RR>
"The main focus for market players is the direction of the
dollar now that year-end buying is no longer around to give the
greenback support," said Minoru Shioiri, chief manager of FX
trading at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities.
"And the reaction of U.S. yields to the upcoming data will be
key for dollar/yen," he said.
The dollar was trading around 92.78 yen <JPY=>, having risen
as high as 93.15 yen on trading platform EBS last Thursday, its
highest since early September 2009.
Although the U.S. currency maintained its firm tone, its
upside against the yen was capped by Japanese exporters' selling,
traders said.
The dollar index, a gauge of the greenback's performance
against six other major currencies, rose 0.2 percent to 78.023.
<.DXY>
The euro fell earlier as low as $1.4257 on EBS, testing a key
chart support level around $1.4229 where the 200-day moving
average sits, and in sight of December's low of $1.4218.
It later trimmed some losses to trade at $1.4297 <EUR=>, down
0.2 percent from U.S. trading on Dec. 31.
Yen crosses were lower with the euro slipping 0.4 percent to
132.68 yen <EURJPY=R> and the Australian dollar falling 0.3
percent to 83.26 yen. <AUDJPY=R>
The U.S. non-farm payrolls report is expected to show U.S.
employers cut 20,000 jobs in December, according to economists
polled by Reuters, after the economy shed a much
lower-than-expected 11,000 jobs in November. []
Data released last week showed the number of U.S. workers
filing new applications for jobless benefits unexpectedly fell in
the week ending Dec. 26 to the lowest level in about 17 months.
[]
The data helped the dollar to rise against the yen to its
highest since early September as it affirmed optimism about the
U.S. economy.
(Additional reporting by Satomi Noguchi; Editing by Joseph
Radford)
