The US dollar had a weaker tone in afternoon trading here, after its scant gains earlier in the Asian session evaporated, giving way to mild consolidation while the market awaits central bank meetings and the release of important US economic data, dealers said. Dealers said the dollar's gains earlier in the Asian session had fizzled out when positions were lightened in anticipation of the release this week of US indicators, which include the results of the US Institute for Supply Management's (ISM's) non-manufacturing survey for November, due out later today, and the latest non-farm payrolls data, due out on Friday. The median estimates of economists polled by Market News International are that the ISM's non-manufacturing index fell to 56.0 last month, having jumped to 57.1 in October, and that non-farm payrolls increased by 100,000 jobs. The Reserve Bank of Australia began a two-day meeting today and the European Central Bank (ECB), the Bank of England, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and the Bank of Korea are also due to hold policy meetings this week. UBS strategist Nizam Idris said in a note: "In a thinned December market, caution is likely to prevail ahead of these potential trigger events." He added: "But if rates go as expected, we think the generalized US dollar weakness story is only likely to continue as the run of weaker data out of the US weighs." While the dollar seems to have held its own since the start of this week, this could well be just a pause for breath, with many in the market convinced the recent sell-dollar theme still has some way to go, analysts said.