During the Asian session, short-term players mostly stayed on the
sidelines. Japanese importers bought the dollar while Japanese
exporters and some investors sold the U.S. currency.
In trying to get a clearer picture of the dollar's direction,
players are now focused on U.S. manufacturing data in October by the
Institute for Supply Management, due out later Wednesday.
Traders are also looking to U.S. payrolls data, due out Friday, for clues about the dollar's direction.
If the payrolls data, in addition to the ISM index, are also
lackluster, then the dollar will remain weak against the yen and the
euro for the rest of this year, traders said.
"I think how the dollar will react to Friday's payrolls data will
decide where it is heading," said Hiroshi Imaizumi, senior dealer at
Resona Bank. "If the dollar breaks below 116 yen, we may have to eye
114.50 yen."
