Oil prices continued to be the main driving force behind currency movements in Asia, after crude oil futures ended above the psychological 60 usd a barrel mark in New York overnight. "While record high oil prices put pressure on both the dollar and the yen, the damage is greater on the yen," a DBS Bank currency strategist wrote. The yen has been dented in recent sessions by fears that high oil prices will start to take a toll on Japan's fragile economic recovery because of the country's dependence on imported oil. A generally unimpressive set of Japanese retail sales data for Japan provided little support for the yen, dealers said. Commercial sales, or total sales at the wholesale and retail levels, rose 3.1 pct year-on-year in May, the 12th consecutive month of increase, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said. Sales at the wholesale level rose 3.3 pct year-on-year, while retail sales rose 2.7 pct year-on-year. "The data has had little apparent impact on the yen, which is not surprising as financial markets are now focusing on the threat to Japan's economic recovery presented by the rise in crude prices," Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi Singapore economist Wong Keng Siong wrote. Demand for the euro was seen mainly as an extension of a recent stop- and technically-driven bounce, supported by weakening speculation about an impending interest rate cut by the ECB and a series of fairly positive data from euro-zone countries. Still, the rebound may be temporary, dealers say, especially with the rate differential between the euro-zone and the US set to widen this week when the US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) ends its two-day meeting Thursday. The market consensus is for yet another 25-basis point increase, which would bring the US federal funds target rate to 3.25 pct versus the euro zone's 2.00 pct benchmark rate. Apart from the FOMC meeting, Asia's currency markets will continue to watch crude oil prices and Japan's Tankan survey of business sentiment, the results of which are to be released on Friday, dealers said.