LONDON: The dollar fell to a one-month low against the yen on Monday, and a five-week trough against a basket of currencies on expectations the Federal Reserve intends to keep interest rates low for some time. The dollar's losses underpinned the euro, which was holding near five-week highs as spreads between US 10-year Treasury yields and German Bunds narrowed. The spread widened to its highest since late 2006 earlier in July helping the dollar. But with doubts growing over when the Fed will start withdrawing stimulus, the gap has narrowed. The Fed starts a two-day meeting on Tuesday. The dollar index, which shed 1.2 per cent last week for its third straight weekly loss, was trading flat at 81.63 while dollar/yen was down 0.35 per cent at 97.91, having fallen to 97.635 yen - its lowest since late June. The euro was flat at $1.3275, not far from a five-week high of $1.32975 struck on Friday. "Investors are trimming long dollar positions going into the Fed meeting as they are expecting the Fed not to just have a dovish bias but also a pledge to keep rates low," said Alvin Tan, currency strategist at Societe Generale. "But we think that tapering of stimulus will nonetheless start and that will be the overriding factor. Any dip in the dollar is a buying opportunity." On Friday, US payrolls report will be released with forecasts for 185,000 jobs being added in July and a dip in the jobless rate to 7.5 per cent. A strong report would support the case for the Fed to start rolling back its stimulus in September and help the dollar. "A scope for the unemployment rate to fall perhaps 0.2 per centage points in Friday's labour report, might see the dollar end the week more positively," said Tom Levinson, currency strategist at ING ECB, BOE MEET. Apart from the Fed, this week will be a busy week for central banks with both the Bank of England and the European Central Bank holding policy meetings. The BoE and ECB are expected to repeat or refine their respective versions of forward guidance that policy will stay loose for an extended period. Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said the bank's quantitative easing plan is working well but his comments provided only a limited boost to dollar/yen. Instead, a big drop in Japanese stocks prompted some accounts, such as algorithm players, to automatically sell dollar/yen, which has had high correlation with the Nikkei share average ever since Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged to adopt a bold strategy to end deflation. The Nikkei fell 3.3 per cent, hitting four-week lows, while Asian stock markets were also in the red, prompting investors to seek safety in the more liquid yen.

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