The US dollar was slightly firmer against the yen but softer against the euro in the afternoon here, in trading that was generally thin because of the closure of markets in the US for a public holiday, dealers said. At 3.00 pm (0700 GMT) here, the dollar was at 118.16 yen, up from 118.05 yen in Tokyo about 2-1/2 hours earlier. The euro was at 1.1969 usd, up from 1.1964 usd in Tokyo. Dealers said the outlook for the euro-dollar pair remains hazy, but that the 1.1800-1.2323 usd range that the euro has been trading in since the start of this year looks set to continue to hold in the near term. As for dollar-yen, an analyst at United Overseas Bank (UOB) here wrote that 118.50 yen is still considered the selling level, and that the downside potential appears to be limited to 117.00 yen for the time being. With the US markets closed today, players will have to look to the euro zone for trading ideas, with German PPI data and retail sales revisions due later today, dealers said. European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet is scheduled to testify before the economic and monetary affairs committee of the European Parliament. Looking further ahead, there are some potentially market-moving US data releases due through the rest of this week, including US CPI and durable goods orders numbers. The release Tuesday of the minutes of the Jan 31 US Federal Reserve meeting will also likely generate some market interest, dealers said. "For this week, the greenback is expected to generally consolidate against the major currencies," wrote the UOB analyst. "However, downside risks in the US durable goods release on Friday could generate some volatility for financial markets." US CPI is expected to have risen 0.5 pct in January, while January durables new orders are expected to have fallen sharply, showing a 1.2 pct drop after a 1.8 pct increase in December, according to surveys by Market News International.