By: Barbara Zigah

In Asian trading, the U.S. Dollar Index, a measure of the greenback’s value against a weighted basket of major currencies, has fallen to a 1-month low, while in pairs trading, the greenback has steadily held near a record low against the Swiss Franc. This was prompted by yesterday’s reports of even more dismal economic news from the United States. On the key labor front, ADP reports that only 38,000 new jobs were added in May, well off the consensus figure of 175,000 new jobs.

As reported at 10:56 a.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the U.S. Dollar Index was trading at 74.797 .DXY, edging up from the 74.306 .DXY 1-month low struck earlier in the session. The U.S. Dollar was trading at 0.8434 against the Swiss Franc, edging up from the 0.8383 record low struck yesterday.

The Euro was briefly under some broad pressure as Moody’s, the international credit ratings agency, downgraded Greek debt further into junk status. Markets were apparently expecting such an outcome, so the common currency quickly rebounded. Against the U.S. Dollar it was trading at $1.4358, an increase of 0.2%, but below the 4-week peak of $1.4459 struck yesterday on the EBS trading platform.