By: Barbara Zigah
The U.S. Dollar slipped versus the Japanese Yen in Asian trading today, coming off a near 1-month peak attributed to investor’s sell-off of the greenback, but market players expect that the dollar will rebound later in the trading day as hedge fund operators enter the picture during the European session.
As reported at 2:50 p.m. (JST), the U.S. Dollar was trading at 82.18 Yen, off from the 82.30 Yen in late New York trading. The U.S. Dollar Index, which is a gauge of the greenback’s strength versus a weighted basket of major currencies, traded at 77.568 .DXY, off from 77.642 .DXY in late New York trading.
Recent strong economic data from China shows that Chinese CPI gained 4.4% last month from the same time last year, better than economists’ predictions of 4%. The credit rating agency, Moody’s Investor Service, also upgrade China sovereign debt from A1 to Aa3. This positive news is fueling speculation that China may tighten their monetary policy in response.
The U.S. Dollar also saw gains against the Australian Dollar in Asia, trading at $1.0043, following the release of unemployment data which showed an unexpected increase to 5.40% (adjusted) from 5.10% last month; economists had predicted a fall in the rate to 5%.