U.S. Dollar Gains against Japanese Yen in Light Asian Trading

By: Barbara Zigah

In Asian trading today, Japanese importers helped to push the U.S. Dollar up versus the Japanese Yen; as reported at 3:45 p.m. (JST), the U.S. Dollar traded at 87.96 Yen, up from Friday’s New York trade of 87.70 Yen. Though the currency market is expected to see light trading today as a result of a holiday in the United States, many market players expect the U.S. currency to decline, perhaps even to 85.00 Yen, later in the trading week, as and when new U.S. economic data is released. On Thursday, the weekly report on new jobless claims will be issued and investors will look to it for an indication of the economy’s recovery; this past Friday, data showed that the unemployment rate in the U.S. dropped to 9.5%, which fueled speculation that the Federal Reserve Bank is unlikely to make any chances to their current monetary policy.

Meanwhile, the common currency Euro made gains against both the U.S. Dollar and the Japanese Yen. Versus the greenback, the Euro traded at $1.2563 up from $1.2543 in New York, and versus the Yen it was 110.37 Yen as compared to 109.96 Yen in New York. The rise in the Tokyo equity market is encouraging short-term investors in Asia to buy into the Euro; in early afternoon trading, the Nikkei was up .9%.