Dollar under pressure in Asia

The dollar came under broad pressure on Friday, sinking to a four-month low against the yen while risk currencies faltered after the House of Representatives delayed a vote on a Republican proposal to raise the US government's debt limit, adding to uncertainty ahead of an August 2 deadline.
The euro relinquished earlier gains and was down about 0.5 percent at a session low of $1.4265 after Moody's said it may cut Spain's credit rating, fuelling fears about the euro zone's debt problems and weighing further on the Australian and New Zealand dollars.
Before the dollar's fall to a fresh four-month low of 77.45 yen, Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda issued a strong warning against the yen's strength, saying he would carefully consider how long Tokyo could ignore current exchange-rate moves without acting.
The fear of intervention and position tweaking ahead of the weekend prevented players from offloading the dollar further, as it found support having breached an option barrier reported to stand at 77.50 yen, with traders pointing to semi-official bids.
The dollar remained in a precarious position with traders talking about stop-loss orders lined up below the 77.50 level. They also feared that a sharp fall in the dollar would trigger heavy selling by Japanese margin traders who hold near-record high dollar-long positions, aggravating its decline. Even with a deal to lift the debt limit, a downgrade of the US credit rating appears likely unless a big dent is made in the deficit. A downgrade would raise US borrowing costs, hurting an already weak economy, and rattle global investors.
The euro's earlier bounce was supported by comments by the French and German finance ministers in the Financial Times on Friday, saying that dealing with the risks posed by Greece's debt was crucial to preventing contagion to the rest of the eurozone.
The euro was down 0.3 percent at $1.4286. With sentiment souring toward risk on the euro zone and US debt woes, the recently outperforming Aussie and New Zealand dollars fell prey to profit-taking. Both currencies, which this week hit multiyear highs, hovered around session lows with the Aussie trading down 0.5 percent at $1.0947 and the kiwi 0.6 percent lower at $0.8654.
The Aussie sank back below key resistance levels at its 100-, 55- and 21-day moving averages with more downside pressure expected by analysts. Against the Swiss franc, the US dollar hovered above an all-time low of 0.7990 franc, last trading down 0.1 percent at 0.8005 franc.