By: Barbara Zigah

Yesterday’s worse than expected data which detailed a still weak U.S. labor market and tepid first quarter growth pushed the U.S. Dollar broadly lower in Asian trading. As reported at 1:32 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the U.S. Dollar earlier struck an historic low against the safe haven Swiss Franc, trading at 0.8534 Swiss Francs on the EBS trading platform. The greenback also struggled against higher-risk currencies, slipping to a 3-year low against the New Zealand Dollar when it struck $0.8200. The common currency Euro also gained against the greenback, trading at $1.4260, a 0.8% rise.

One Forex strategist in Japan noted that the greenback’s appreciation earlier in the month appears to be drawing to a close. Further, he says that while the Eurozone’s troubles are weighing on the common currency, in the absence of any positive data supporting the U.S. Dollar, the Euro’s downside against it will be limited.

The U.S. Dollar Index, which gauges the greenback’s performance in relation to the weighted average of other major currencies, slipped 0.7% to 75.055 .DXY, well off the 2-month peak of 76.366 struck earlier in the week. Analysts predict it will test a key support level near 75.00 .DXY.