* Dollar drops to lowest since Japan intervened last week
* Dollar index eyes August low of 80.085
* Euro hits highest in nearly 7 weeks at $1.3312
By Charlotte Cooper and Masayuki Kitano
TOKYO, Sept 22 (Reuters) - The dollar fell on Wednesday to
its weakest level on the yen since Japan intervened last week,
fuelling speculation of more intervention after the Federal
Reserve raised expectations it would print more dollars to help
the U.S. economy.
The dollar hit its lowest in seven weeks against the euro and
a basket of currencies, and dropped below 85.00 yen <JPY=>.
The market had shied off selling the dollar aggressively down
to 85.00 yen, fearing it might be an intervention trigger, but
authorities were so far not seen in the market on Wednesday.
Greenback sales against the yen were said to be long
liquidation from people who had been betting the dollar would get
a lift from intervention.
"It is completely a case of broad-based dollar selling...the
focus is on whether or not there will be intervention and from
where," said a trader at a Japanese brokerage house.
Many traders suspect Japanese authorities may step in
somewhere between 83.00-85.00 yen. Traders said Japanese
authorities have called around banks to ask if they will be
staffed on Thursday, a Japanese national holiday, in an apparent
attempt to keep traders cautious over intervention.
"I suspect we may need to see the dollar fall a bit faster
against the yen to trigger intervention for now. But they will
probably intervene if the dollar falls below 83 yen," said
another trader at a Japanese bank.
Last Wednesday, Japan intervened minutes after the dollar
fell below 83 yen to a 15-year low, its first intervention since
2004.
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The Fed expressed greater concern about sluggish U.S. growth
and low levels of inflation in a statement that many took as
opening the door wider to pumping new dollars into the economy.
[]
"The committee ... is prepared to provide additional
accommodation if needed to support the economic recovery and to
return inflation, over time, to levels consistent with its
mandate," it said in the statement.
Greg Gibbs, currency strategist at Royal Bank of Scotland in
Sydney, said the shift in Fed language to say that current levels
of inflation were not consistent with its mandate meant it had
left itself a low hurdle for taking further policy action.
"I doubt the market will step back from selling the U.S.
dollar much for the time being until the U.S. data starts to
improve," he said.
The dollar fell as far as 84.78 yen <JPY=> before creeping
back to 84.92, two yen above a 15-year low of 82.87 set last
Wednesday just before Japanese authorities intervened to send it
three yen higher in a single day. It shed 0.2 percent on the day.
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan kept intervention jitters
alive by telling the Financial Times intervention was
"unavoidable" if there was drastic change in the currency.
[]
RACE TO THE BOTTOM
Compounding the dollar's problems was a fall in Treasury
yields, with short-dated yields at record lows after the Fed's
statement, narrowing yield spreads and making U.S. debt less
attractive to Japanese investors. []
While further steps by the Fed are seen as dependent on the
strength of economic indicators, its statement highlights the
gulf between the U.S. and the likes of Australia which is
tightening policy, Deutsche Bank's global head of G10 FX
strategy, Alan Ruskin, wrote in a note.
In a illustration of how dollar-negative the market reaction
was after the Fed, even the yen, with rates near zero,
appreciated in the face of potential intervention.
"At a minimum it highlights what the Bank of Japan is up
against," Ruskin said.
"Arguably this is a question of whether the BOJ printing
press or the Fed printing press is more effective in the race to
the bottom of who can weaken their currency more?"
The euro rose as far as $1.3312 <EUR=>, up 0.4 percent after
climbing 1.5 percent on Tuesday. It climbed through its 200-day
moving average on Tuesday and chartists have said the next target
is its August high of $1.3334.
A break of that high could put it on course to test $1.3520,
the 50 percent retracement of its slide from November to June.
After that, it may next test $1.3691, its high in April.
The dollar index <.DXY><=USD>, a measure of its performance
against a basket of six currencies, fell to 80.122, its lowest
since early August when it troughed at 80.085. A break there
would take it to its weakest levels since April.
The Australian dollar rose as far as $0.9583 <AUD=D4> to its
highest since July 2008.
Spot gold <XAU=> hit a fresh record peak on Wednesday, its
allure growing as speculation mounts that major currencies like
the yen and dollar will see their value diluted by monetary
easing.
(Additional reporting by Hideyuki Sano; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
