By: Barbara Zigah

Asian trading today, the common currency slipped to a 3-week low against the U.S. Dollar, taking along with it other commodity-linked currencies as renewed worries over the Eurozone’s debt problems and a much weaker than expected U.S. labor data take its toll on risk appetite. Last Friday, the U.S. Labor Department reported a relative rare event, a non-farms payroll report unchanged from the previous period; analysts had expected an increase in the data of at least 70,000 new private sector jobs.

In the Eurozone, concerns as to whether or not Greece will receive its next tranche payment from the E.U./IMF are again at the fore of investor consciousness. The joint mission, along with inspectors from the European Central Bank, have temporarily ended their talks with the Greek nation in order to delve more deeply into the country’s finances. The Greek government announced late last week that the country would not meet its deficit debt target, though by how much and for what reasons are disputed by the parties involved.

As reported at 2:25 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the Euro slipped 0.3% against the U.S. Dollar to $1.4164, rebounding slightly from the earlier posted 3-week low of $1.41367.