* Dollar index hits a new one-year high
* Cross yen pairs slip again in choppy trade
* Euro tumbles vs yen, pulled down to a fresh 11-month low
* Markets unsure about long-term impact of GSE rescue plan
By Satomi Noguchi
TOKYO, Sept 9 (Reuters) - The dollar rose to a one-year peak
against a basket of currencies on Tuesday, pushed higher by falls
in the euro and the Australian dollar as the yen surged on a
renewed flight to safety.
After a respite on Monday when global stocks rallied on a
U.S. government bailout plan for its top mortgage firms, market
participants said investors had once again begun to dump carry
trades funded by the low-yielding Japanese currency.
The yen jumped 1 percent against the euro, dragging the
single European currency down to a fresh 11-month low against the
U.S. dollar.
"The market has gone back to credit worries and concerns
about a global economic slowdown, and the yen is being bought
across the board," said Hideaki Inoue, chief manager of forex
trading at Mitsubishi UFJ Bank.
"These extremely choppy moves in yen crosses are wearing out
traders, but the yen's broad strength looks like it is here for
the near term," he said.
The euro tumbled 0.9 percent to 151.40 yen <EURJPY=R> after
falling as low as 150.86 on trading platform EBS, towards a
13-month low of 150.60 yen hit late last week. On Monday, the
euro had shot up as high as 157.02 on EBS.
The euro was 0.3 percent lower at $1.4085 <EUR=> after
touching a fresh 11-month low of $1.4046 on EBS.
The dollar fell 0.6 percent against the yen to 107.47 yen
<JPY=>.
The dollar index <.DXY>, a gauge of the greenback's
performance against a basket of six currencies, hit a fresh
one-year high of 79.776 before pulling back to 79.590, up 0.1
percent on the day.
The decision by the U.S. government to bail out mortgage
lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was widely hailed as positive
step in staving off wider financial and housing market weakness.
But Asian stocks gave up some gains on Tuesday on the view
that the U.S. takeover of the mortgage companies has addressed
some risks stemming from the financial crisis but has not solved
it. []
The rescue plan had not given the U.S. currency clear
direction or fully reversed the larger trend of risk aversion,
analysts said.
"The Fannie and Freddie takeover is an open-ended question as
far as the foreign exchange market is concerned. There is still
confusion," said Motonari Ogawa, director of currency trading at
Barclays Bank.
"It is difficult to embrace the takeover as a fully positive
factor," he said.
The yen's resilience also encompassed the Australian dollar
and sterling.
The Australian dollar sank 1.7 percent to 86.51 yen
<AUDJPY=R> after jumping as high as 90.81 on Monday, according to
Reuters data. It tumbled 1 percent against the dollar to $0.8050
<AUD=D4> after touching $0.8020, the lowest level since August,
2007.
(Additional reporting by Shinichi Saoshiro; Editing by Edwina
Gibbs)
