ZURICH: The Swiss franc was little moved against the dollar and the euro on Tuesday but dipped against the yen alongside the single currency as investors trimmed some of their bearish bets against the Japanese currency.
The euro, however, bounced from early lows against the yen after Japan said it will buy bonds issued by the euro zone's permanent rescue fund.
"The focus is not on the Swiss franc at the moment, nothing is happening there," said Antje Praefcke, senior forex strategist at Commerzbank. "We're looking at the dollar and at the European Central Bank's rate decision later this week."
The franc has moved broadly in tandem with the euro ever since the Swiss National Bank capped it at 1.20 per euro more than a year ago.
"Jobless data this morning failed to bring fresh impulses but the consumer price index on Friday could draw more attention," Praefcke said.
Economists in a Reuters poll expect Swiss consumer prices to fall 0.2 percent year-on-year in December and to remain stable versus the previous month.
"Of course, the SNB will stick to its policy but if deflationary trends ebb off, if inflation even moved into positive territory, I would expect euro-Swiss to rise a bit as an initial reaction" Praefcke said.
The franc fell 0.1 percent against the dollar to trade at 0.9216 by 0639 GMT compared to the New York close.
It was unchanged against the euro at 1.2085, but fell 0.5 percent against the yen to trade at 94.77 yen per franc.
SNB board member Zurbruegg said on Monday raising interest rates would be unthinkable at the moment despite the dangers of Switzerland's real estate market overheating.
Data released on Monday showed Swiss sight deposits as well as the SNB's forex reserves fell slightly in December as an easing of worries in the euro zone crisis took the pressure off the safe-haven franc.
"Where the SNB's balance is concerned, the latest data hint at a very quiet end to '12 for the SNB with both overall franc sight deposits at the SNB and forex reserves largely stable once again not least on the back of a stable euro-franc," UBS economist Reto Huenerwadel said in a note.
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