MW: Dollar rises vs. most rivals ahead of ECB, BOE meetings
By Lisa Twaronite, MarketWatch
TOKYO (MarketWatch) -- The dollar slipped against the yen but gained against other rivals in Asian trading, ahead of European Central Bank and Bank of England policy meetings later in the session.
Most attention is on whether U.K. officials opt to continue purchasing assets to support the economy.
The ECB is widely expected to leave its key lending rate unchanged at a record low 1%. ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet is unlikely to make any big changes to plans to slowly unwind the Frankfurt-based central bank's range of unconventional monetary policy measures, economists said. Read more on BOE, ECB.
The euro changed hands at $1.3843, down from $1.3906 in North American trading late Wednesday. The British pound sterling was at $1.5867, down 0.2%.
The dollar index (DXY 79.65, +0.28, +0.35%) , which tracks the greenback against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, rose to 79.571 from 79.369 late Wednesday.
The dollar slipped to 90.76 yen, from 91.01 yen late Wednesday.
On Wednesday, the dollar traded higher against major currencies, heading back toward its highest levels since last summer versus the euro, after a pair of reports showed the U.S. private sector shed fewer jobs in January and that conditions in the nation's services sector improved modestly last month. See Wednesday's Currencies report.
