The dollar was back on the defensive on Friday, holding close to a four-month low, after a climb in U.S. stocks gave investor confidence a lift and boosted the fortunes of riskier currencies. The euro, sterling and the Australian dollar held on to gains made on Thursday against the greenback and the yen, keeping within sight of recent highs made as optimism has grown that the worst of the global economic crisis may be over. But they lacked conviction to push any higher against the dollar, even though stock markets in Asia were on the rise, and traders said the rally had run out of steam for now. "The dollar still looks soft but people don't want to sell it too aggressively at these kind of levels," said Gerrard Katz, regional head of FX trading at Standard Chartered in Hong Kong. "We've moved a fair bit already so fresh selling is not rushing into the market." The dollar dipped 0.1 percent against a basket of six major currencies to 82.361 .DXY, holding close to a four-month low on the index set on Wednesday at 81.871. It has lost 9 percent against the euro since early March, but the European currency is now struggling to break above $1.3740, where resistance from a 38.2 percent Fibonacci retracement of its 2008 fall from above $1.60 has blocked its path. The euro hit a seven-week high at $1.3722 this week, but was 0.1 percent lower on the day at $1.3630. Analysts said euro zone and U.S. data might offer some direction later as investors assess relative economic recovery prospects and monetary policies. The Federal Reserve is engaged in keeping interest rates low by buying government debt but European Central Bank policymakers differ on the scale of asset purchases they should use to support the economy. Euro zone gross domestic product data due at 5 a.m. EST is forecast to show the region's economy shrank 2.0 percent in the first quarter from the previous three months, more than a 1.6 percent fall in the prior quarter. RETAIL INTEREST Data showed Japanese margin traders trimmed net long positions in sterling and the euro against the yen on Thursday and their net yen short positions in major cross/yen pairs and dollar/yen fell by 1,077 contracts to 113,423, down slightly from a two-week high of 114,500 on Wednesday. However, retail traders are still adding to long positions in Aussie/yen and kiwi/yen and also raised their net longs in dollar/yen on Thursday when the greenback hit a two-month low of 95.10 yen on trading platform EBS. The dollar edged up 0.1 percent to 95.84 yen. The Australian dollar, which hit seven-month highs against both the yen and the dollar this week, has been a favorite play for short-term speculators looking to benefit when the global economy bottoms out.

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