The MSCI Asia Pacific Index (MXAP) declined 0.4 percent as of 9:41 a.m. in Tokyo. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures lost 0.2 percent and South Korea’s Kospi Index retreated 0.3 percent. The Australian dollar weakened 0.2 percent and the won slid against all 16 major counterparts.

Minutes released yesterday from the March 13 Fed policy meeting showed it was holding off on increasing monetary accommodation unless the economic expansion faltered or prices rose at a rate slower than its 2 percent target. Australia’s services industry shrank in March, the fifth contraction in the six months, as the sustained strength of the currency cut sales and curbed new orders, a private survey showed.

In the U.S. “it seems that policy easing is not being considered,” said Joseph Capurso, a currency strategist in Sydney at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the nation’s largest bank. “The U.S. dollar is likely to keep rising, and the Aussie and the kiwi are likely to keep falling.”

The dollar was near a one-week high versus the euro as signs of improving employment supported the Federal Reserve’s decision to hold off from increasing monetary accommodation.

Figures based on payrolls from ADP Employer Services due to be published today may show U.S. employment increased by 206,000 last month, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. That compares with a gain of 216,000 in February, the biggest in two months.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average was little changed and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.2 percent. Markets in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong are closed for holidays.

To contact the reporters on this story: Lynn Thomasson in Hong Kong atlthomasson@bloomberg.net; Masaki Kondo in Singapore at mkondo3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Poole at jpoole4@bloomberg.net

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-04/asian-stocks-australian-dollar-drop-on-fed-won-falls.html

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