* Euro down 0.3 pct at $1.4101 <EUR=>; down 0.4 pct vs yen
* Market takes cue from equities; eyes U.S. bank earnings
* Jakarta blasts put pressure on risk appetite but limited
(Adds trade data, updates prices)
By Tamawa Desai
LONDON, July 17 (Reuters) - The dollar and yen were firmer
against other major currencies on Friday as caution set in
before more key U.S. corporate earnings later in the day.
U.S. stocks rallied for a fourth day on Thursday. U.S.
stocks futures indexes were a little lower in mid-morning London
trade.
"Currency markets are taking their lead from equities, with
the dollar and yen generally firmer," said Adam Cole, global
head of FX strategy at RBC Capital Markets.
Second quarter earnings results from Citigroup <C.N>, Bank
of America <BAC.N> and General Electric <GE.N> are all due out
later in the day, and the market is seen closely following stock
market reaction to those results.
Stellar earnings results from Goldman Sachs <GS.N> and
JPMorgan Chase <JPM.N> earlier this week, as well as big
corporates such as Intel <INTC.O>, IBM <IBM.N> and Google
<GOOG.O> exceeding forecasts have buoyed risk-taking sentiment.
Markets shrugged off euro zone trade data for May, which
posted a surplus of 1.9 billion euros, slightly lower than
forecasts for 2.7 billion euros. []
By 0903 GMT, the euro was down 0.3 percent at $1.4101 <EUR=>
and down 0.3 percent at 132.20 yen <EURJPY=>.
Brighter sentiment had almost caused currency pairs to break
out of consolidation patterns, but not quite. Euro/dollar was
holding its symmetrical triangle dating back to the start of
June.
The euro is also on track for its best weekly performance
against the dollar in two months, or up 0.9 percent on the week.
The dollar index was up 0.3 percent at 79.451 <.DXY> after
falling to a six-week low at 79.131 the previous day.
Sterling was down 0.7 percent at $1.6317 <GBP=> and down 0.8
percent at 152.94 yen <GBPJPY=>.
The U.S. currency eased 0.1 percent to 93.70 yen <JPY=>.
The dollar dipped to a five-month low of 91.73 yen in July
and its rise stalled at 94.46 yen this week -- right around a
38.2 percent Fibonacci retracement of the dollar's fall from its
high in June of 98.90 yen down to the five-month trough.
Risk sentiment was dampened after bomb blasts at hotels in
Jakarta, although most analysts did not expect any lasting
effect on markets.
"The blasts have added to this direction in terms of risk
trades coming off," said Mitul Kotecha, head of FX strategy at
Calyon in Hong Kong, but added it wasn't a big move.
Reaction was muted to comments from Japan's new currency
tsar, Rintaro Tamaki, who said the U.S. dollar will remain a
core asset in Japan's $1 trillion of foreign currency reserves.
Tamaki also said he would not completely rule out currency
intervention, but that foreign exchange rates should be
determined by the market. []
