March 28, 2007	Wednesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 8, 1428

LONDON, March 27: The dollar slipped on Tuesday against the euro and yen after US consumer confidence figures came in below expectations.

The euro edged up to $1.3353 in late European trading from 1.3330 late in New York on Monday.

The dollar fell to 117.80 yen in European trade from 118.09 yen late on Monday.

The US Conference Board said its Consumer Confidence Index had fallen to 107.2, down from the revised 111.2 in February. Analysts had expected a reading of 109.

The March index was the lowest since November 2006 when the reading was 105.3.

However, the figures showed US consumers' assessment of present conditions had improved slightly with the present situation index up to 137.6 from 137.1 in February.

“Consumer assessments of the current state of the labour market improved to the highest reading in over five years,” noted analysts at Barclays.

“We interpret this report as another indicator that the labour market is tight, but that consumers are concerned about the potential effect of recent financial market volatility and rising gasoline prices,” they added.

However, after the dollar fell on Monday following the release of weak new home sales data, the reaction was limited.

“There was a short-term reaction with day traders taking a quick profit, but other than that the data didn't cause much of surprise,” said Paul Bednarczyk, currency strategist at 4CAST.

The euro was changing hands at $1.3353, against $1.3330 on Monday, 157.30 yen (157.44), 0.6794 pounds (0.6769) and 1.6207 Swiss francs (1.6200).The dollar stood at 117.80 yen (118.09) and 1.2138 Swiss francs (1.2154).

The pound was being traded at $1.9656 (1.9691).—AFP