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TOKYO, June 16 (Reuters) The dollar pulled back on Friday from seven-week highs struck against the euro and yen this week as investors looked to see if data on the U.S. current account deficit later in the session would cut short its recovery.
Data the previous session showed manufacturing growth in New York and the mid-Atlantic region held up better than expected, helping to cement expectations that solid economic activity would prompt the Federal Reserve to lift interest rates further.
The dollar has bounced back as investors have fled riskier assets over the past month and due to the anticipated Fed credit tightening that would help widen the currency's yield advantage.
But for the year the dollar has still lost some 7 percent against the euro and 3 percent versus the yen as worries about the need for a weaker dollar to help fix global trade imbalances were revived by the Group of Seven industrial powers in April.
The G7 called for Asian currencies to appreciate to help correct the imbalances, sparking a dollar sell-off that drove it to one-year lows against the euro and the pound.
Other data on Thursday showed the United States attracted just $46.7 billion in foreign capital in April, far short of what was needed to cover the $63.4 billion trade deficit on the month.
With investors nervous that the massive U.S. deficits will keep haunting the dollar, market players will eye the data on the U.S.
current account gap in the January-March quarter, due at 1230 GMT.
Economists expect the current account deficit to shrink to $222.5 billion from $224.88 billion in the fourth quarter, reflecting the slight shrinkage in the trade gap since then.
Any surprisingly big figure would likely spark selling in the dollar.
In early Tokyo trade, the dollar inched down to 116.70 yen after slipping 0.2 percent in the previous session.
The euro edged up to $1.2645 after rising 0.2 percent on Thursday.
REUTERS DH RAI0643


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