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* Dlr holds firm, hits two-month high against the yen
* Asian shares edge up as tech shares follow Wall St rally
* Gold bounces back from Monday's six-week low
By Susan Fenton
HONG KONG, Dec 22 (Reuters) - The dollar held firm on
Tuesday against major currencies, and hit a two-month high
against the yen, while Asian shares edged up as technology
stocks tracked a rally in their peers on Wall Street.
The dollar touched 91.45 yen <JPY=>, its highest level
since late October, helped by unwinding of dollar short
positions ahead of the year end, and was steady against a
basket of major currencies <.DXY> after reaching multi-week
highs on Monday.
Recent robust U.S. economic figures are also supporting the
dollar, raising expectations that U.S. interest rates may rise
sooner than earlier thought.
"It does all get back to when the Fed may or may not be
tightening policy and the market is heading towards thinking
they will get to tightening in Q3 next year," said Greg Gibbs,
a currency strategist at RBS in Sydney.
The dollar's strength helped lift shares of Asian
exporters, notably in Japan where the Nikkei index <> hit
an eight-week high as exporters were boosted by a weakening
yen.
The Nikkei was up 1.2 percent by late morning.
Gold picked up, trading at $1,093.2 an ounce after hitting
a six-and-a-half week low at $1,090.65 on Monday when it was
hit by the dollar's rise.
The MSCI index of Asia Pacific stocks traded outside Japan
<.MIAPJ0000PUS> rose 0.6 percent while the Thomson Reuters
index of regional shares <.TRXFLDAXPU> was 0.7 percent higher.
RATE SPECULATION
Asian technology shares tracked a rally on Wall Street
after Barclays upgraded chipmaker Intel Corp <INTC.O>, which
helped push the Nasdaq <> to a 15-month high. An upgrade
for aluminium producer Alcoa Inc <AA.N> and the U.S. healthcare
bill's advance in the Senate underpinned overall market
sentiment, lifting the Dow Jones <> by 0.8 percent.
Stock market gains generally were modest as investors are
keen to lock in gains this year, which has seen the MSCI Asia
ex-Japan index surge 60 percent.
Optimism about the sustainability of global economic
recovery meanwhile was reinforced by Chicago Federal Reserve
Bank President Charles Evans, who forecast the U.S. economy
would grow 3 to 3.5 percent over the next 18 months but low
inflation would allow the central bank to maintain easy
monetary policy for an extended period. []
Currency markets, however, are speculating that the U.S.
economy could recover faster than the euro zone and U.S. rates
will rise earlier.
Rising U.S. yields are eating into the Australian dollar's
<AUD=D4> interest rate advantage and pushed it to an 11-week
low at $0.8782 at one point on Tuesday.
The dollar's broad strength has also put pressure on the
oil price <Clc1> but it was steady on Tuesday at $73.76 a
barrel ahead of an OPEC meeting in Angola, when the cartel is
expected to leave output limits unchanged []. The
market was also awaiting U.S. crude inventory data due later in
the day.
(Additional reporting by Charlotte Cooper in TOKYO; editing by
Tomasz Janowski)
(susan.fenton@thomsonreuters.com; +852 2843 6367; Reuters
Messaging: susan.fenton.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)
