Market News

Currency analysts believe that there is a strong probability that the USD/JPY pair will once again touch last week’s peak of 101.53 Yen given the Yen’s recent underperformance and especially ahead of a key election in Japan’s Upper Parliament this weekend.

The U.S. Dollar Index moved higher during a choppy Asian trading session following comments made by Ben Bernanke, the head of the U.S. Federal Reserve, wherein he gave hope to Dollar bulls who expect that the Fed’s quantitative easing scheme will be reined in before the year’s end.

The U.S. Dollar was struggling for traction ahead of today’s Congressional testimony for the Federal Reserve Chairman.

The U.S. Dollar managed to eke out a moderate recovery during Tuesday’s Asian session as investors hold on to their expectations that the Federal Reserve is likely to take a less accommodative stance before any of its major rivals.

During Monday’s Asian trading session, news that Chinese growth expectations were met helped to ease investors’ concerns of an economic slowdown there which gave the Aussie Dollar a much needed reason to edge higher.

The U.S. Dollar paused in its downtrend which began on Thursday’s trading session as investors’ fears of a global growth slowdown temporarily halted their consideration for prolonged dollar softness.

The U.S. Dollar fell on Thursday following comments made by Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chief, who unexpectedly cautioned markets that the Fed might have to keep the Fed’s accommodative stance in position for a longer period of time as the unemployment rate could be disguising some labor market weakness, but that it would also be dependent upon inflation rates staying low.

The U.S. Dollar Index held close to a recently struck 3-year high after a release of unexpectedly dismal trade data from China confirmed speculation that the economy there is slowing.

In spite of the U.S. Super Committee’s failure to come to some consensus regarding the U.S. deficit, investors view the ongoing crisis in the Eurozone as a situation more worrying, thus have sought the safe-haven refuge of the greenback, pushing it higher against the Euro.

The U.S. Dollar slipped from a recently struck 3-year peak but analysts expect that it will continue to strengthen in the longer term on growing expectations that the Federal Reserve Bank stands poised to curtail its existing asset purchase program.

Last Friday’s better than expected U.S. labor data helped to push the U.S. Dollar Index to a new 3-year peak; the Index measures the greenback’s relative strength against a weighted basket of its major peers.

After leaders at both the Bank of England and the European Central Bank surprised markets with monetary policy stances that were more dovish than previously, the U.S. Dollar broadly rallied during the Asian session.

As risk averse investors shun all things related to the Eurozone, the U.S. Dollar has been reaping the benefit.

With financial markets in the U.S. closed today for the Independence Day holiday, the U.S. Dollar held steady in overnight Asian trade after investors cut back their long positions ahead of Friday’s market moving data release, namely the monthly non-farms payroll report.

A continually strong US Dollar has pushed gold prices to the lowest they’ve been in the past 7 weeks. Although leaders at last week’s EU summit agreed to a plan to build a rescue fund, the Fitch Ratings has commented that this plan did not sufficiently ease the pressure on the region’s sovereign bond ratings.