By Lisa Twaronite, MarketWatch
TOKYO (MarketWatch) -- The dollar slipped in Asian trading Wednesday, taking its cue from rising Asian equities markets, which whetted investors' appetite for risk and higher-yielding currencies.
"The Asian session was relatively quiet and maintained its focus on equity market movement," said analysts at Action Economics.
"Asian [stock] indices continued to enjoy an improvement in sentiment and this kept the dollar and yen on the softer side, although Tuesday's ranges remained intact for the most part, with speculative interest fairly low," they said.
The euro will take center stage later Wednesday, as the European Commission -- the executive arm of the European Union -- will decide whether to formally accept Greece's budget plan. Greece aims to slash the deficit from a level equal to nearly 13% of gross domestic product last year to less than 3% -- the E.U. limit -- by 2012.
"E.U. authorities must walk a fine line between enforcing the proper fiscal discipline on Greece in order to ensure the credibility of the stability pact while at the same time avoiding the draconian measures that would radicalize the Greek populace and turn them against E.U. membership," wrote Boris Schlossberg, director of currency research at GFT.
The dollar index (DXY 78.74, -0.27, -0.35%) , which tracks the greenback against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, fell to 78.721 from 79.003 in late Tuesday's North American trading.
The dollar slipped to 90.14 yen from 90.40 yen late Tuesday, and the euro traded at $1.4014, up from $1.3966
On Tuesday, the U.S. dollar declined versus the euro as tensions surrounding Greece's fiscal problems faded.
