* Dollar index hits 8-month low 78.616 <.DXY>
* Euro/dollar at 5-month high; Ireland worries cap gains
* Dollar hits post-intervention low vs yen
(Adds quote, detail)
By Neal Armstrong
LONDON, Sept 29 (Reuters) - The ailing dollar fell on
Wednesday as sliding U.S. Treasury yields and below-forecast
U.S. data fuelled expectations of further monetary easing.
Mounting speculation the Federal Reserve could embark on a
second round of quantitative easing, which would be negative for
the dollar, drove the greenback to a five-month low against the
euro and a two-year trough against the Australian dollar.
"The market is jumping on QE expectations as it feels the
U.S. data will force the Fed to do something, and I think that
will be the case," said Manuel Oliveri, currency strategist at
UBS in Zurich.
Analysts said the dollar could face further losses as a
selling trend was taking hold, while the euro would continue
rising after becoming resilient to economic and banking problems
facing some countries on the euro zone periphery.
"The safe bet is to keep selling the dollar, especially
given reasonably supportive data from the euro," said Peter
Frank, currency analyst at Societe Generale.
Data on Wednesday showed euro zone economic sentiment
unexpectedly rose in September.
Frank said the euro had developed a thick skin to banking
and economic problems faced by Ireland, which have flared in
past weeks. Unless problems arose in a major country, such as
Spain, the future of the euro zone was unlikely to be threatened.
At 1117 GMT, the dollar index <.DXY> was down 0.3 percent at
78.771, close to an earlier eight-month low of 78.616.
Dollar weakness helped push the Australian dollar to a
two-year high of $0.9730 <AUD=D4> after a large option barrier
at $0.9700 gave way.
The Swiss franc <CHF=> rose to 0.9735 francs per dollar, a
2-1/2-year high, according to Reuters data.
It later gave up those gains after data showed Switzerland's
leading growth indicator, the KOF economic barometer, eased to
2.21 in September from 2.22 in August. []
The KOF beat forecasts of 2.12, but some in the market had
expected an even stronger reading.
The euro jumped to a five-month high of $1.3638 <EUR=>
before pulling back to $1.3610.
Gains were capped after Standard and Poor's downgraded
nationalised Anglo Irish Bank's lower tier 2 debt to CCC from B,
but the euro traded 0.2 percent higher on the day. []
Irish and Portuguese yield spreads hit euro lifetime highs
against German bonds on Tuesday on concerns over those
countries' fiscal deficits.
YEN INTERVENTION NERVES
The euro has risen about 11 percent against the dollar so
far in the July-September quarter and is on track for its
biggest quarterly percentage gain in about eight years,
according to Reuters data.
"The primary reason for the euro's rise has been declining
confidence in the dollar and covering of stale euro short
positioning," said Stephen Gallo, head of market analysis at
Schneider Foreign Exchange.
The dollar also looked vulnerable against the yen, hitting
its lowest since Japan intervened to sell the yen two weeks ago
to drive the dollar up from a 15-year low.
The dollar fell 0.4 percent against the yen <JPY=> to 83.50
yen on EBS, its lowest since Sept. 15, when Japan intervened.
Many in the market think Japan is likely to intervene again
if the dollar threatens the 83 yen area as Japan's intervention
began after it had hit a 15-year trough of 82.87 yen.
(Additional reporting by Naomi Tajitsu)
