HONG KONG — Stock markets in Asia slipped on Thursday, and the U.S. dollar rose to a near nine-month high against the euro as the single currency was dogged by worries about sovereign debt levels and poor growth prospects.
The price of gold fell after the International Monetary Fund said it would sell more of its bullion holdings.
The planned gold sales also pressured the Australian dollar, though the I.M.F. said the selling would be spread over time.
Shares in Japan edged higher as a weaker yen helped exporters’ stocks, but profit taking capped gains after the Nikkei 225 index booked its best rise in more than two months in the previous session.
The Nikkei share average rose 0.15 percent but unable to gather much momentum after a 2.7 percent pop on Wednesday.
The MSCI index of Asia Pacific stocks outside Japan slipped 0.4 percent, weighed down by a 1.1 percent fall in the materials sector.
Investors were focused on the relative speed at which the world’s economies were recovering from recession and punishing laggards such as some European economies.
Several Federal Reserve policy makers, confident of a U.S. recovery, want to begin selling securities relatively soon to cut back massive help to the financial system, the central bank said overnight.
“The U.S. took a very aggressive response to the crisis (monetary, bank recapitalization, fiscal) and while there are costs to these measures, they will likely result in a faster exit from the recession,” Michael Hasenstab, senior vice president and co-director of Franklin Templeton’s fixed income group, told Reuters in an online chat room interview.
Mr. Hasenstab, who oversees $60 billion in assets, said he was underweight the euro and has no exposure to Greek bonds.
The euro slipped 0.2 percent to $1.3572, within striking distance of a nine-month low of around $1.3530 that was hit last week.
The U.S. dollar index rose 0.3 percent against a basket of other major currencies.
But the Australian dollar sagged 0.3 percent to US$0.8960 , near the middle of a $0.9400 to $0.8575 range carved out in the last four months.
Gold tumbled 0.4 percent to $1,101.50 an ounce after peaking at $1,126.85, the highest since Jan. 20, before the I.M.F. news on gold sales.
The precious metal has posted gains in every year since 2000 and last year surged 25 percent.
The stronger U.S. dollar weighed on commodities and materials stocks, with U.S. crude futures down 0.4 percent to $77.03 a barrel.
The Reuters-Jefferies CRB index of 19 commodity futures is down 3.4 percent so far this year.
