By: Barbara Zigah
The U.S. Dollar slipped versus the Japanese Yen in Asian trading today, as exporters from Japan booked profits after Friday’s sharp gain in the U.S. currency which was precipitated by better than predicted employment data from the United States. Many analysts are calling the latest unemployment report that best in two years, given that the jobless rate declined to 10% from 10.2% the previous month, and jobs lost was a paltry 11,000 in November, a significant decline from the average 135,000 job losses in the last quarter. In Friday’s late New York trading, the U.S. Dollar was trading at 90.50 Yen; in today’s trading, as reported at 1:50 pm (JST) in Tokyo, the greenback was trading at 89.84 Yen.
Despite the positive signs on the U.S. labor front, market players suggest that the U.S. Dollar could continue to fall to a low of 89.50 Yen over the short term, especially if the Japanese manufacturing sector continues to sell off U.S. Dollars in advance of the year-end book closing. Another factor which will hurt the U.S. Dollar is the possibility, given these positive numbers, of the Federal Reserve raising interest rates. To that end, the market will closely scrutinize this week’s auction of U.S. securities, because a weak demand for American bonds could, potentially, lift U.S. interest rates over the long term putting the U.S. Dollar under more selling pressure.