TOKYO (Agencies): The dollar retreated in Asian trade Friday as a rally in global shares and metal prices encouraged investors to snap up riskier currencies that are closely tied to volatile commodities markets. The dollar slipped to 95.43 yen in Tokyo morning trade from 95.51 in New York late Thursday. The euro firmed to 1.4084 dollars from 1.4063 and to 134.40 yen from 134.33. Global stock market gains and a jump in industrial metals prices drove up the currencies of countries whose economies rely heavily on exports of commodities, such as the Canadian, Australian and New Zealand dollars. The bounce in markets "reflected growing confidence in an economic recovery," NAB Capital strategist John Kyriakopoulos wrote in a note. "Improved investor risk appetite weighed on the 'safe haven' US dollar and yen," he added. Risk aversion eased after Wall Street powered higher on upbeat corporate earnings results and a broker upgrade of General Electric, propelling the main indexes to fresh 2009 highs. Barclays Capital analysts said that risk sentiment would remain the dominant driver of the commodity currencies, but upcoming Chinese and US factory data and American jobs numbers risk taking the steam out of the market. Investors were looking ahead to US second-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) figures due later Friday. New claims for unemployment benefits in the United States rose in the past week to 584,000, according to a weekly government update that nonetheless showed some signs of improvement in a weak labour market.
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