Westpac

The Aussie dollar entered offshore exchange edging closer to the 87 cent handle with the market keeping a keen eye on developments in Europe.

Macquarie Group , Australia's top investment bank, forecast a disappointing second-half profit and gave an outlook that raised worries about its key equity business, sending its shares sliding 7 percent.

The euro hit a seven-month low against the dollar on Thursday as concerns intensified that Greece's fiscal problems would spread to other highly-indebted euro zone countries, while European stocks followed Asia lower.

The euro fell to a five-month low against the dollar on Wednesday as investors seized on Greece's fiscal woes to drive the currency below key support, while shares in China were hit by reports of bank lending restrictions.

SYDNEY, Jan 18 (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar and the yen were firm on Monday while currencies leveraged to global growth like the Australian dollar ran into a bout of profit-taking after an impressive run up since the start of the new year. The euro EUR= stayed under pressure, dragged down by concerns about fiscal problems buffeting Greece. The country's budget deficit has ballooned and its credit ratings have been cut, a factor that has been weighing down on the euro in the past few months [ID:nL...

U.S. private equity investor JC Flowers is circling Britain's weakened banking industry, prepared to swoop on forced divestments over the next 12 months, according to the firm's new European and Asia Pacific boss.

The dollar eased back on Wednesday from its biggest rise in three weeks the previous session, as traders awaited U.S. inflation data and minutes from the Bank of England's November meeting for further direction.

Federal Reserve policy-makers last month discussed whether they should increase asset buying if the economic outlook worsened and some argued that more aggressive purchases would aid the recovery.

A softer than expected result in the NAB business confidence survey did little to curb enthusiasm for the Aussie dollar in Asia yesterday as it held on to intraday support at 0.9050. During the offshore session the AUD momentarily jumped above the 91 cent mark following a rally in the Euro only to pull back to exchange at 0.9050 this morning ahead of the release of Westpac's Consumer Confidence survey.

Asian stocks retreated from 13-month highs on Friday as a conflicting picture about the strength of U.S. economic recovery stopped investors from extending this week's rally but gave some respite to a battered U.S. dollar.

Asian stocks retreated from 13-month highs on Friday and commodity prices dipped after data giving a conflicting picture about the strength of the U.S. recovery stopped investors from extending this week's rally.

Australian Dollar: Local investors were slightly disappointed by yesterdays Westpac Consumer sentiment index release sending the Aussie dollar down from early morning levels around 83 cents.

Despite a relatively upbeat NAB survey on business conditions the Aussie dollar retreated from its intraday highs at 0.8380 in Asia yesterday dropping to a low of 0.8320 with the market questioning the sustainability of the recent rally in equities.

Australian Dollar: The Australian Dollar took a bit of a hit in Asian trade yesterday falling from a seven and half month high of 0.7783

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) said on Friday the country's economy will shrink by 1.25% for the year ending June 30.

Australian Dollar: The Aussie dollar traded lower in local trade yesterday weighed down by continued weakness in equity markets and a slide in the Euro. After holding onto

Westpac Banking Corp entered into an agreement to buy the smaller St. George Bank Ltd for A$18.6 billion ($17.6 billion) in an all stock deal to create the largest Australian home lender and one of the biggest banks by market value.

The yen slipped on Tuesday and high yielding currencies rallied as gains in equity markets bolstered risk appetite and saw investors move tentatively back into carry trades.