The U.S. Dollar slipped against the Japanese Yen during the Asian trading session coming off a 2-week high struck last Friday after the U.S. Labor Department reported an unexpected improvement to 7.8% in the unemployment rate. Despite the improvement in the unemployment rate, analysts don’t believe that the markets will be convinced that the labor market in the U.S. is on the brink of an enduring recovery; the non-farms payroll figures were just at expectations at 114,000.
As reported at 1:35 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the U.S. Dollar was trading at 78.55 Japanese Yen, a decline of 0.2% from the 78.88 Yen struck on the EBS trading platform on Friday. That data triggered a hike in Treasury yields, with the 10-year benchmark rising to 2-week high and helping the greenback rise against the safe haven Yen.
The Euro had also slipped against the U.S. Dollar, dropping 0.4% to trade at $1.2987, slightly off the 2-week peak of $1.3072 struck on Friday. The Euro is under pressure from comments made yesterday by Germany’s Finance Minister who said that the Chancellor’s upcoming trip to Greece was not necessarily an indication that they would be receiving their bailout tranche.