NEW YORK (Reuters) - The euro rose against the U.S. dollar on Tuesday on bets the European Central Bank would act soon to tackle the bloc's debt crisis while crude prices edged higher as tropical storm Isaac approached the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Wall Street fell slightly at the open in a session expected to be light as investors eye a speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Friday. Daily volume in U.S. equities was the lowest of the year on Monday.
U.S. crude prices rose 0.4 percent and Brent edged up 0.1 percent as tropical storm Isaac neared hurricane strength in the Gulf of Mexico, forcing companies to close down U.S. oil rigs and refineries.
Investors were looking ahead to Friday's speech Bernanke at an annual meeting of central bankers at Jackson Hole, Wyoming. ECB's Draghi will no longer attend the conference due to a heavy workload, a move that gave support to the euro. The single currency rose 0.5 percent to $1.2559.
Upbeat U.S. housing data made it harder for investors to determine if the Fed will announce further stimulus to the U.S. economy, a bet that has supported a recent rally in equities and other risk assets.
"This is another data point the Fed could use to say they have time before they need to make a decision on implementing some kind of accommodative policy," said Todd Schoenberger, managing principal at the BlackBay Group in New York.
"Bernanke could still give us some clue about (more stimulus), but we're extremely vulnerable for a disappointment if we don't get it."
The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> fell 17.96 points, or 0.14 percent, to 13,106.71. The S&P 500 Index <.spx> lost 2.15 points, or 0.15 percent, to 1,408.29. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> dipped 2.32 points, or 0.08 percent, to 3,070.87.
An MSCI gauge of global equities <.world> fell 0.27 percent and the pan European FTSEurofirst 300 index <.fteu3> was off 0.8 percent.
Global growth worries resurfaced after Japan cut its assessment for the economy, citing slowdowns in the United States and China as well as Europe's debt crisis.
The commodity-linked Australian dollar hit a five-week low of $1.0346.
Adding to signals of weakness, Spain said its recession had deepened in the second quarter as domestic spending slumped in the wake of tough austerity measures aimed at tackling the government's fiscal problems.
U.S. Treasuries prices edged up ahead of a sale of $35 billion of two-year notes as traders anticipated hints from Bernanke of possible further economic stimulus.
The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note was up 4/32, with the yield at 1.6369 percent.
(Writing by Rodrigo Campos; additional reporting by Ryan Vlastelica, Wanfeng Zhou and Richard Leong, editing by Dave Zimmerman)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/asian-shares-eases-narrow-range-euro-dips-031459234--finance.html
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