* Yen slips as risk appetite robust
* Dollar steady, close to recent highs
* Australia, New Zealand and UK on holiday
(Recasts, adds quotes, updates prices, changes dateline,
previous LONDON)
NEW YORK, Dec 28 (Reuters) - The dollar rose against the
yen in year-end positioning, but traded little changed against
the euro on Monday in holiday-thin trade as investors debated
the prospects for further gains after a recent rally.
In Japan, Monday was the last working day of the year for
many companies, which resume business on Jan. 4. The focus for
many is whether the dollar will continue to rise next month
after its rebound from a 14-year low on the yen in November.
Trade was light coming into the New York session with many
market participants in Europe off for the period between
Christmas and the New Year. Markets in the United Kingdom were
closed for a public holiday.
There was little market impact from news over the holiday
weekend of an attempt to blow up a passenger plane flying to
Detroit. []
"The dollar is digesting its recent strong advance," said
Andrew Bekoff, chief investment officer for Family Office Group
in New York.
The dollar has gained broadly in recent weeks on optimism
that the U.S. economy may be poised for better growth in 2010,
Bekoff said. Gains against the euro in particular were
bolstered by concerns that euro-based economies won't recover
as quickly, he said.
"The euro has been pressured by sovereign debt cuts in
Greece," Bekoff said.
In early New York trade, the euro was little changed at
$1.4400 <EUR=>. The dollar index <.DXY>, a non-traded
calculation of the dollar's performance against six other major
currencies, was at 77.554, off a 3-1/2-month high of 78.449 set
last week.
The dollar was up 0.3 percent at 91.49 yen, not far off a
two month high set last week <JPY=>. The euro was up also 0.3
percent at 131.76 yen <EURJPY=>.
The yen was broadly weaker as investors took advantage of
quiet markets to position themselves ahead of a likely pickup
in activity in the new year, analysts said.
"Some corporates out of Japan may have been active in the
yen, but it's very, very quiet here, and I think (European)
companies will have done 99.9 percent of what they had to do
this year already," said Antje Praefcke, currency strategist at
Commerzbank Corporates and Markets in Frankfurt.
The dollar has risen nearly 1 percent against the yen this
year so far, after falling roughly 19 percent in 2008.
Traders are looking to the U.S. Treasury bond market to see
if yields continue to rise, with a total of $118 billion of
auctions due this week. []
Other factors that could also move the dollar this week
include Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index for
October and U.S. consumer confidence for December on Tuesday.
<ECONUS>
(Additional reporting by Simon Falush in London, Editing by
Chizu Nomiyama)
