Dollar up

The dollar rose broadly on Monday as investors took profits on other major currencies which had climbed to multi-month highs on hopes for a recovery in the global economy. Some traders said a cautious tone from policy makers who gathered at a Group of Eight finance ministers meeting on the weekend helped temper recent optimism about the economy, encouraging bets in riskier assets to be cut further.
Commodity-linked currencies such as the Australian dollar that were under additional pressure after oil prices fell in Asian trade, extending their slide from more than seven-month highs above $73 struck last week. "The market began taking profits on gains in emerging market currencies as well as higher-yielding currencies before the G8 meeting, and this is continuing as many investors still have their doubts about the recent excessive optimism over an economic recovery," said a senior trader at a Japanese bank.
The G8 nations, heartened by signs the credit crisis is easing, have started to consider how to unwind rescue steps for their economies, their finance ministers said on Saturday.
But they also warned there must be firmer signs of recovery before any of the massive public stimulus for the economy is withdrawn. "The G8, as expected, did not lay out the details of the exit strategies for their crisis policies," said Kosuke Hanao, head of treasury product sales at HSBC in Tokyo. The dollar index, a gauge of the greenback's performance against six other major currencies, rose 0.4 percent to 80.505.
The euro dropped 0.5 percent from late New York trade to $1.3942, extending a fall made after data on Friday showed a plunge in euro zone industrial production in April. Traders said the euro came under selling pressure after the UK Daily Telegraph reported on its website that Germany's top industrial group has warned that Germany's credit crunch is deepening.
The euro dropped 0.5 percent to 137.17 yen, dragging the dollar lower against the yen, traders said. The dollar trimmed earlier losses and traded at 98.38 yen, down 0.1 percent on the day. The Australian dollar fell 0.8 percent to $0.8072, retreating further from an eight-month high of $0.8265 struck earlier this month.
US crude oil futures fell 1 percent to $71.27 a barrel in Asian trade on Monday, extending falls on Friday which snapped a three-day rally that had pushed futures to their highest intraday price since late October. The dollar drew some support from comments from Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, who said the dollar's role as the world's main reserve currency is unlikely to change in the near future.
Kudrin's remarks came ahead of the first summit of leaders of Russia, China, India and Brazil on Tuesday in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg, at which the leaders are expected to discuss issues including foreign reserve diversification. Russia holds about 30 percent of its $404.2 billion foreign exchange reserves in Treasuries, making it the fifth-largest holder of US government debt. China, the world's largest holder of US Treasuries, has $707.9 billion, according to the most recent US Treasury Department data, while Japan has $686.7 billion.
Repeated moves among the so-called BRIC nations to buy bonds issued by the International Monetary Fund have raised concerns over the US dollar's status as the world's main reserve currency. But leaders of the BRIC countries do not plan to discuss prospects for new global reserve currencies at their meeting, a top Kremlin aide said.