The U.S. Dollar held close to a 3-year peak against the Japanese Yen as well as most major currencies during Monday’s Asian trading session, propelled their by much better than expected jobs data last Friday which fueled investors optimism that the largest economy in the world is well on the road to recovery. According to the U.S. Labor Department, the private sector added 236,000 new jobs in February, significantly higher than the 196,000 analysts consensus had forecast; the unemployment rate also notched lower to 7.7% from 7.8%, hitting a 4-year low. That data gave rise to speculation that the current extremely loose monetary policy of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank might be reconsidered in favor of a more hawkish posture, provided that the labor sector continues to see improvement.
As reported at 10:18 a.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the USD/JPY pair was trading at 93.13 Yen, a gain of 0.15% from late trading in New York on Friday, and off Friday’s peak of 93.60 Yen, a level unseen in August 2009. One senior economist in Tokyo believes that a test of the 100 Yen level is now likely. The EUR/USD pair was trading at $1.2995, a loss of about 0.1% from Friday’s late trade and not too far from that day’s trough of $1.2955 which hit just after the data release.
U.S. Dollar Supported by Labor Data
After working on Wall Street, Barb began her second career as a freelance writer at Daily Forex, where the CEO recognized fresh, untapped potential and was willing to give her a try. She’s never looked back. Since then, she’s worked steadily as a freelance writer and editor in the financial services and Forex-related industry.
... Read more After working on Wall Street, Barb began her second career as a freelance writer at Daily Forex, where the CEO recognized fresh, untapped potential and was willing to give her a try. She’s never looked back. Since then, she’s worked steadily as a freelance writer and editor in the financial services and Forex-related industry.