By: Barbara Zigah
Profit takers succeeded in pushing down the U.S. Dollar in Asian trading this morning; as at 1:50 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the Dollar was trading at 93.74 Yen. In last night’s late trading in the U.S., the greenback touched on a new 7-month peak against the Japanese Yen when it struck 94.05 Yen, prompting investors to ditch the U.S. currency ahead of the release of U.S. labor data later today, with analysts expecting to see a rise in job creation for the month of March. Many market players, including Asian hedge fund operators, chose the less risky path and reaped their profits from their recent U.S. Dollar/Japanese Yen transactions.
Many markets are closed today for the Good Friday holiday, resulting in subdued trading elsewhere. The single currency Euro closed down against the U.S. Dollar, trading at $1.3568 in Asia, a decline from yesterday’s New York trade of $1.3585. One strategist in Tokyo offered that the Euro is likely to continue its downward trend so long as the American economy appears to be strengthening, coercing investors to fund U.S. Dollar-denominated assets. The U.S. Dollar Index, a measure of the dollar’s strength versus six major currencies, was trading at 80.805 .DXY, up from New York’s trade of 80.718 .DXY.