AFP (10/10)
-- The dollar rose in Asia Thursday as President Barack Obama formally
nominated fiscal dove Janet Yellen to head the Federal Reserve, while he
moved to hold talks with lawmakers in a bid to end a budget stand-off.In
afternoon Tokyo trade, the greenback bought 97.73 yen, up from 97.37
yen in New York Wednesday, while the euro fetched $1.3497 compared with
$1.3523, and 131.90 yen against 131.74 yen.Dealers
welcomed Obama's choice of Yellen to take over from Ben Bernanke at the
Fed as she is a supporter of the bank's $85 billion-a-month bond-buying
scheme, fuelling hopes it will be kept in place.Minutes from the Fed's most recent meeting showed a split among policymakers about when to start winding down the programme.Yellen's
nomination restored a hint of normality to Washington, where a
government shutdown approaches its 10th day with no sign of compromise
-- raising fears of a catastrophic US debt default as an October 17
deadline looms.Obama
on Wednesday invited Republican and Democratic lawmakers to the White
House to try to work through the impasse, which has attracted a chorus
of criticism internationally, including from major US debt-holders China
and Japan.There
are hopes the two sides will agree to a short-term increase in the debt
ceiling in order to hold substantive talks on the budget.The dollar firmed against other Asia-Pacific currencies.It
rose to 43.23 Philippine pesos from 43.16 pesos the previous day, to
62.24 Indian rupees from 62.19 rupees, and to 11,525 Indonesian rupiah
from 11,510 rupiah.It
also advanced to Sg$1.2537 from Sg$1.2512, to 31.48 Thai baht from
31.43 baht, to Tw$29.40 from Tw$29.38 and to 1,076.04 South Korean won
from 1,074.35 won.The
Australian dollar weakened to 94.01 US cents from 94.21 US cents, while
the Chinese yuan changed hands at 15.97 yen against 15.92 yen.
