By Ian Chua and Antoni Slodkowski SYDNEY/TOKYO (Reuters) - The dollar came under light pressure against a basket of major currencies in Asia on Monday, with traders speculating the Federal Reserve may offer more stimulus next month in the face of an uncertain growth outlook. While Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke gave no details of further action to boost the U.S. recovery at an eagerly awaited speech on Friday, he said the central bank would extend its September policy meeting to two days to consider its options. "If the economy were to fall into recession, we believe the Fed would initiate another round of quantitative easing," Michael Carey, chief economist for North America for Credit Agricole, said in a note to clients. Analysts added, however, that the hurdle is high for introducing more monetary easing due to a rise in core inflation and a split regarding the policy within the Fed. "Hence the trade-off for the policy, between boosting activity and employment and generating inflation or other distortions in asset markets, has become less attractive," Carey said. Market expectations for a fresh round of bond buying by the Fed had eased in the leadup to the central bank's annual symposium at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, so the fact that Bernanke did not announce any immediate action was not a major disappointment, traders said. This leaves the focus squarely on upcoming data including the closely-watched non-farm payrolls reports due on Friday as well as data on U.S. personal spending and manufacturing for clues about the health of the world's largest economy. The dollar index shed 0.2 percent to 73.702, not far from 4-month lows around 73.421 and off Friday's peak of 74.464.

Source