By James Glynn SYDNEY--The Australian dollar was weaker in Asia on Thursday as the U.S dollar recovered from its losses after the U.S. central bank warned about economic outlook. Moves to curb the U.S. Federal Reserve's monthly bond buying were not assured, Chairman Ben Bernanke said overnight. Still, he kept in place a possible end-of-year start to tapering. "The Fed continues in commentary to strike a very dovish stance with chairman Bernanke's written testimony emphasizing downside risks and the slowness of rate increases," Citigroup strategist Steven Englander said. Late on Thursday the Australian dollar was trading at US$0.9164 compared with US$0.9222 late on Wednesday. Mr. Bernanke talked a lot about risks but didn't back away from tapering if he sees some more good employment results, National Australia Bank currency strategist Emma Lawson said. "Markets in the U.S. initially found Bernanke dovish. But now they've had a bit more time to digest the comments he looks more balanced," Ms. Lawson said. "I'm interested to see how the London session views him." Mr. Bernanke speaks again later today but is expected to repeat earlier remarks. The strength of the U.S. dollar in Asia followed a higher-than-expected fix with the yuan, RBC Capital Markets currency strategist Sue Trinh said in Hong Kong. "It was a much higher fix and that prompted shorts to be covered on the U.S. dollar," she said. In Australia local economic news was weak. Australian business confidence and conditions weakened in the June quarter in spite of record-low interest rates and a fall in the Australian dollar over recent months, according to a survey by National Australia Bank. Business confidence fell to negative territory in the June quarter after being in positive territory in the March quarter, the survey found. Business conditions deteriorated further into negative territory. "Business conditions were especially weak in mining, manufacturing and retail suggesting lower borrowing rates and a falling Australian dollar have done little to support activity in these industries," NAB Chief Economist Alan Oster said. Standard and Poor's reaffirmed Australia's AAA-sovereign credit rating. It is one of only eight countries to hold the rating.

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