* Better-than-expected employment report boosts Aussie
* Focus turning to ECB policy meeting, U.S. retail sales
* ECB expected to leave rates on hold, Greece in spotlight
By Rika Otsuka
TOKYO, Jan 14 (Reuters) - The yen fell broadly on Thursday
after a solid Australian employment report boosted risk appetite,
encouraging investors to pick up higher-yielding currencies.
The Australian dollar jumped after government data showed net
employment increased in December for a fourth straight month and
the jobless rate fell to an eight-month low, adding to the case
for a further interest rate increase. []
"The positive news from Australia has cheered investors,
prompting them to seek more risks," said Hideki Amikura, deputy
general manager at Nomura Trust and Banking.
Traders said the unwinding of positions in commodity
currencies triggered by China's move to start tightening monetary
policy earlier this week seemed to have run its course.
Gains in Asian shares <.MIAPJ0000PUS> <> and U.S. stock
futures <SPc1> <DJc1> supported investors in a return to riskier
trades, lifting yen crosses and higher-yielding currencies,
traders said.
The Australian dollar advanced 0.7 percent from late U.S.
trade to $0.9297 <AUD=D4>. Traders said the Aussie kept its
upward momentum against the U.S. dollar and was likely to extend
its gains past the 2009 high of $0.9407 in the near term.
Against the yen, the Aussie rose 1 percent to 85.25 yen
<AUDJPY=R> after topping the psychologically important 85 yen
level shortly after the data was released.
The dollar index <.DXY> <=USD> edged down 0.1 percent to
76.788 with strong support seen around the 100-day moving average
near 76.50.
The dollar was up 0.4 percent at 91.73 yen <JPY=> after a
fall in the yen against higher-yielding currencies gave a
temporary lift to the greenback.
The dollar gained more than 0.5 percent against the yen on
Wednesday, helped in part by a spike in U.S. Treasury yields.
The euro edged up 0.2 percent to $1.4538 <EUR=> a day after
it shot to a one-month high of $1.4580 on trading platform EBS on
demand from Asian sovereign entities.
Traders are watching whether the euro can rise and stay above
resistance around $1.4570, a 38.2 percent Fibonacci retracement
of its fall from the December high of $1.5142 to the December low
of $1.4218.
The next resistance is a 50 percent Fibonacci retracement at
$1.4680, but it may lose upward momentum around there as
investors could be hesitant to chase it higher due to debt
troubles in some euro zone member countries, they said.
The euro inched up 0.5 percent to 133.30 yen <EURJPY=R>.
Attention was turning to the European Central Bank's policy
meeting and U.S. retail sales numbers for December, both due
later in the day, as well as U.S. corporate earnings.
The ECB is expected leave interest rates unchanged at
Thursday's meeting, flagging that rates will stay at a record low
of 1.0 percent for some time. That would put the spotlight on the
bank's view of Greece's current debt troubles. []
Market players have bought back the euro as it has broken
above its early January highs of $1.4485, with charts showing the
European single currency has bottomed out, said Tsutomu Soma,
senior manager of foreign securities at Okasan Securities.
"But buying now is largely technical, with few aggressive
buyers as people are worried about Greece," Soma said.
Sterling <GBP=D4> was up 0.1 percent at $1.6287, having
matched a one-month high of $1.6309 first hit on Wednesday.
Bank of England policymaker Andrew Sentance said in a
newspaper interview that the central bank was nearing a point
where it wanted to wait and see what impact its unprecedented
monetary stimulus had had on the economy, though that did not
mean it would start to withdraw it. []
(Additional reporting by Anirban Nag in Sydney and Kaori Kaneko
in Tokyo; Editing by Michael Watson)
