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* No surprises as Fed says economic progress still needed
* Euro weak ahead of ECB"s policy review announcement
* Yen firm vs dollar with 10-year Treasury yield at 1.3%
* Aussie, Kiwi retreat in face of dollar strength
By Kevin Buckland
TOKYO, July 8 (Reuters) - The dollar traded near its highest
in three months versus major peers on Thursday after minutes of
the Federal Reserve"s June policy meeting confirmed the world"s
biggest central bank is moving toward tapering its asset
purchases as soon as this year.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback
against six rivals, edged up to 92.759 after touching 92.844
overnight for the first time since April 5.
Fed officials said substantial further progress on economic
recovery "was generally seen as not having yet been met,"
although participants expected progress to continue and agreed
they must be ready to act if inflation or other risks
materialize, according to the minutes of the Federal Open Market
Committee (FOMC)"s June policy meeting released Wednesday.
"Various participants" at the session still felt conditions
for curbing the bond-buying that is supplying markets with cash
would be "met somewhat earlier than they had anticipated," while
others saw a less clear signal from incoming data, the minutes
showed.
Economists polled by Reuters expect the Fed to announce a
strategy for tapering its asset purchases in August or
September. While most predict the first cut to its bond-buying
program beginning early next year, about a third of respondents
forecast it will happen in the final quarter of this year.
"The FOMC remains one of the more hawkish central banks
under our coverage," and will begin to discuss a taper at the
policy meeting at the end of this month, Commonwealth Bank of
Australia strategist Carol Kong wrote in a client note.
"We therefore expect the USD to trade with an upward bias."
The dollar was flat at $1.1791 per euro, just off
a three-month peak of $1.17815 touched overnight, when German
data raised doubts about the strength of Europe"s economic
recovery.
Investor sentiment in Germany, the euro zone"s biggest
economy, fell sharply in July, though it remained at a very high
level, the ZEW economic research institute reported.
Later Thursday, European Central Bank President Christine
Lagarde will hold a press conference after the monetary
authority announces the outcome of an 18-month strategy review,
which is likely to include a shift in the inflation target to 2%
from "below but close to 2%" currently - which would
theoretically allow for inflation overshoots.
Elsewhere, the dollar traded slightly lower at 110.585 yen
, as the pair continued to be weighed down by a slide
in U.S. Treasury yields.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury note yielded
1.3196% on Thursday in Asia after dipping to 1.2960% overnight
for the first time since mid-February.
The Australian dollar, widely viewed as a proxy for
risk appetite, traded 0.2% weaker at $0.74650, but still near
the middle of the broad range in place over the past three
weeks.
Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe reiterated
Thursday that the unemployment rate would need to fall further
and hold in the low 4% levels to lift inflation, an outcome not
expected until 2024.
The previous day, the central bank took its first step
towards stimulus tapering by announcing that a third round of
its quantitative easing program would be smaller in scale than
the previous two.
Meanwhile, the New Zealand dollar sank below the
psychologically important 70 cent mark, sliding 0.4% to
$0.69920.
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Currency bid prices at 0400 GMT
Description RIC Last U.S. Close Pct Change YTD Pct High Bid Low Bid
Previous Change
Session
Euro/Dollar $1.1792 $1.1792 +0.01% -3.48% +1.1798 +1.1784
Dollar/Yen 110.5600 110.6100 -0.01% +7.08% +110.6600 +110.4300
Euro/Yen
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