Reuters: US Dollar Report: GLOBAL MARKETS-Asian stocks seek inspiration; dollar struggles

Reuters: US Dollar Report Reuters.com is your source for breaking news, business, financial and investing news, including personal finance and stocks. Reuters is the leading global provider of news, financial information and technology solutions to the world's media, financial institutions, businesses and individuals. // via fulltextrssfeed.com

GLOBAL MARKETS-Asian stocks seek inspiration; dollar struggles Jul 23rd 2013, 00:26 Mon Jul 22, 2013 8:26pm EDT * Asian stocks mixed, Nikkei reverses Monday's gains * Markets eye earnings results for fresh cues * Dollar broadly softer, recently sold currencies bounce back By Ian Chua SYDNEY, July 23 (Reuters) - Asian stocks got off to an uninspired start on Tuesday, with Japan's share market losing a bit of ground, while gold took a breather after its biggest one-day gain in over a year. Traders said thin conditions due to the Northern Hemisphere mid-summer lull made for choppy moves and investors needed strong earnings results for more conviction. Among major firms reporting on Tuesday are Apple Inc. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan drifted up a modest 0.3 percent, with Australian shares gaining 0.3 percent and South Korean stocks 0.6 percent higher. Tokyo's Nikkei slipped 0.2 percent, reversing some of Monday's 0.5 percent gains that came after a widely expected victory for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at an upper house election. The result has given Abe a stronger mandate to push through painful economic reforms, on top of other measures, to end decades of stagnation. Abe vowed on Monday to stay focused on reviving the world's third biggest economy. "I expect the Nikkei to remain range bound just like yesterday. It probably won't rise or fall much," said Mitsushige Akino, chief fund manager at Ichiyoshi Asset Management. "Looking more closely at individual stocks, investors will be cherry-picking shares as their focus has already shifted to corporate earnings." Gold stood at $1,334 an ounce, having jumped about 3 percent on Monday in its best performance since June 2012. The rally has pushed bullion further away from a 34-month trough of $1,180.71 plumbed just a month ago. Traders said a theme running across markets currently involved investors taking profits and unwinding bearish positions in a number of assets that have fallen sharply in the past few months. That has also seen a rebound in the yen and even the Australian dollar, which in turn pushed the U.S. dollar broadly lower. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback's performance against a basket of major currencies, wallowed at one-month lows following a 0.5 percent fall on Monday. The euro traded at $1.3190, having topped out at a one-month high around $1.3218 overnight. Against the yen, the dollar dipped to 99.33, down from Monday's high of 101.05. The Australian dollar held near the overnight high of $0.9270, well off from a 34-month trough of $0.8998 set earlier in the month. Commodity prices were also mixed with copper holding above $7,000 a tonne after Monday's 1.7 percent rally, while U.S. crude stayed under pressure after investors booked profits in a rally that took it to a 16-month high of $109.32 on Friday. Oil last traded at $107 a barrel. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions