* Cross/yen dips in tandem with Asian share declines
* Kiwi briefly touches 10-month peak vs dollar
* Some see euro rising towards December high of $1.4720
By Masayuki Kitano
TOKYO, Aug 5 (Reuters) - The yen rose broadly on Wednesday as
a fall in Asian shares prompted some selling in higher-yielding
currencies such as the Australian dollar.
The dollar hovered near its 2009 low against the euro and a
basket of currencies, and analysts saw risks of further declines,
due to increasing signs of improvement in the global economy and
dollar-bearish technical charts.
The U.S. currency has slid broadly since March as riskier
assets such as equities and oil rallied on improving economic
data, eroding demand for the safe-haven greenback.
The dollar has extended its losses this week as data
highlighted an improvement in global manufacturing activity, and
U.S. equities climbed to nine-month peaks.
"One thing to watch out for is the possibility of relatively
large declines in the dollar," said Tohru Sasaki, chief foreign
exchange strategist for JPMorgan Chase Bank in Tokyo.
Rises in equities seem to have gained momentum and various
fiscal stimulus measures will likely help lend them support for a
while, pressuring the dollar, Sasaki said.
The improving global economic outlook bodes ill for the
dollar, which was already vulnerable as capital inflows into the
United States have been relatively subdued and since the U.S.
fiscal deficit has been expanding, he added.
The euro slipped 0.1 percent from late New York on Tuesday to
$1.4394 <EUR=>. The euro had climbed to $1.4445 on trading
platform EBS earlier this week, its highest since mid-December,
when it rose as high as $1.4720.
The dollar dipped 0.1 percent against a basket of currencies,
to 77.712 <.DXY>, hovering nearing a 10-month low of 77.451 hit
earlier this week.
The yen was broadly higher, with the dollar falling 0.3
percent to 94.93 yen <JPY=> and the Australian dollar falling 0.6
percent to 79.80 yen <AUDJPY=R>.
The yen crosses fell as regional shares dropped, with Chinese
equities falling 1.7 percent <>. Traders also cited some
dollar-selling against the yen by Japanese exporters.
The New Zealand dollar briefly scaled a peak of $0.6751
<NZD=D4> earlier on Wednesday, its highest since early October,
before pulling back to $0.6714, down 0.4 percent from late U.S.
trading on Tuesday.
Market players said the kiwi gained an initial boost after
New Zealand's Fonterra Cooperative Group, the world's top dairy
exporter, said international dairy prices surged at its latest
auction, recovering after a recent run of falls. []
MORE DOLLAR WEAKNESS?
The euro seems poised to rise toward its December peak of
$1.4720, or perhaps even higher, said Masashi Hashimoto, senior
analyst for Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ.
Over the past few weeks, the euro has breached key resistance
on weekly Ichimoku charts by breaking above the top of the cloud.
The same holds true for the Australian dollar.
"It is possible to think that this is the start of a
medium-term trend," Hashimoto said.
Hashimoto added, however, that the fact that the euro's
52-week moving average was pointed downwards suggested that it
was too early to come to that conclusion.
For now the euro may target the December peak, and if that is
breached, the next target would be levels around $1.51, roughly
where the 76.4 percent Fibonacci retracement of the euro's drop
from its record high of $1.6040 last July down to its October
trough near $1.2330, Hashimoto said.
Sterling dipped 0.1 percent to $1.6917 <GBP=D4>, having
pulled back from a nine-month high of $1.7005 hit on Tuesday.
(Additional reporting by Shinji Kitamura and Satomi Noguchi;
Editing by Chris Gallagher)
