By: Barbara Zigah

The U.S. Dollar slipped versus the Japanese Yen in Asian trading as market players booked profits on the U.S. currency’s rebound in advance of today’s release of U.S. labor data. Analysts expect to see that the unemployment level rose last month with speculation as good as confirmed by Robert Gibbs, the spokesman for the Obama administration who commented that a payroll report from the private sector indicated an uptick in the numbers. While Gibbs backtracked somewhat by stressing that his comments should not be construed as a prediction of the labor data, market players quickly moved to trim their long positions in the Yen/crosses.

As reported at 2:37 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the U.S. Dollar slipped to 88.09 Yen, a decline of .2%, and well off the 14-year trough of 84.82 Yen established on the EBS trading platform last week. Market players continue to believe that the U.S. Dollar will continue the downward spiral versus the Japanese Yen, but many insist it is approaching the bottom.

A Reuters poll of economists, however, forecasts that November numbers will show that 130,000 jobs were lost, 60,000 fewer than in October, with the unemployment rate predicted to hold at 10.2%, which is the highest jobless rate in more than 25 years.