Dollar slips in Asia
The euro bought $1.3549 compared with $1.3535, while it was also at 135.51 yen against 135.53 yen.
TOKYO (AFP) - The dollar slipped back below 100 yen in Asia Wednesday after US Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke indicated the bank's stimulus programme would remain in place until the economy was back on track.
The greenback bought 99.98 yen in Tokyo, down from 100.13 yen Tuesday in New York before Bernanke's comments.
The euro bought $1.3549 compared with $1.3535, while it was also at 135.51 yen against 135.53 yen.
Traders sold the dollar as the outgoing Fed chief assured markets that interest rates would remain low "well after" the jobless rate hits 6.5 percent, said Kengo Suzuki, forex strategist at Mizuho Securities.
Bernanke gave no specific indication of when the Fed might start pulling back on its monetary easing, which keeps interest rates low by spending vast sums of cash on Treasury bills to keep yields down.
"His comments were initially perceived as dovish, leading to broad dollar-selling," Suzuki told Dow Jones Newswires.
But Suzuki added that they "could be taken both ways -- he said the decision to pull back depends on incoming economic indicators, and that led to some buying back".
Bernanke, with about 11 weeks left in his eight-year tenure as Fed chair, reiterated the Fed's commitment in its easy-money stance, in line with what his designated successor, Janet Yellen, told a Senate panel last week.
Analysts are now keeping an eye on the release later in the day of minutes from the Fed's most recent policy meeting in October, hoping to garner fresh clues about its plans for the stimulus.
The dollar was mixed against other Asia-Pacific currencies.
It climbed to 62.48 Indian rupees from 62.23 rupees Tuesday, to 1,057.51 South Korean won from 1,055.94 won, to Tw$29.48 from Tw$29.46, and to 31.65 Thai baht from 31.59 baht.
But it slipped to Sg$1.2441 from Sg$1.2457 while staying flat at 43.57 Philippine pesos.
The Australian dollar rose to 94.04 US cents from 93.85 cents, while the Chinese yuan was at 16.39 yen against 16.36 yen.
