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Deposit rates

SINGAPORE: Asian dollar deposit rates were little changed in lacklustre trade on Thursday with most traders sidelined ahead of tonight's release of the US weekly jobless claims and April Philadelphia Federal Reserve survey of regional business activity data, dealers said.

Weekly jobless claims for the week ending April 13, is forecast to be around 363,000 compared with 347,000 reported in the previous week.

The April Philadelphia Federal Reserve's survey of regional business activity index is expected to show an increase of 2.8 percent against March's 0.1-percent decline.

"The market was quiet and featureless in the morning except for some light activity at the shorter end of the market", a local dealer said.

"All eyes are on tonight's weekly jobless claims and Philadelphia Federal survey index numbers. But I don't think there will be much impact as the figures have been built into the market and most people have squared or are squaring their positions", he added.

In short dates, Thursday/Friday and weekend eased 1/16 percentage point each to a common 5-5/16 5-3/16 percent. Week-fixed was unchanged from Wednesday's 5-3/8 5-1/4 percent.

Among term rates, one-month was unchanged at 5-1/2 5-3/8 percent, six-months unchanged at 5-9/16 5-7/16 percent, nine-months unchanged at 5-11/16 5-9/16 and twelve-months unchanged at 5-13/16 5-11/16 percent.-Reuter