950817

Asian dollar

deposits little

changed

SINGAPORE: Asian dollar deposits were little changed in moderate trade, dealers said.

They said most traders were sidelined ahead of tonight's release of the US weekly jobless claims, June international trade data and August Philadelphia Federal Reserve Business Activity Survey.

Weekly jobless claims for the week ended August 12, is forecast to be around 340,000 compared with 335,000 reported in the previous week.

The international trade deficit for June is expected to decline to US $10.7 billion against May's deficit of US$11.43.

The August Philadephia Fed index is expected to be around -12.4 percent from -23.7 percent reported in July.

"The market was a little bit soft in the morning. There's no fresh news and most people are waiting for direction from tonight's jobless claims, international trade and Philadephia Fed index figures," a local dealer said.

"But we probably won't see much impact here unless the numbers are way off market expectations," he said.

In short dates, Thursday/Friday and weekend slipped 1/8 percentage point each to a common 5-7/8 5-3/4 percent, respectively. Week-fixed eased 1/16 point to 5-15/16 5-13/16 percent.

Among term rates, one-month eased 1/16 point to 5-15/16 5-13/16 percent, three-month was unchanged from Wednesday's 6 5-7/8, six-month eased 1/16 point to 6 5-7/8 and twelve-month was unchanged at 6-1/8 6 percent.-Reuter