By: Barbara Zigah
In Tokyo trading today, the common currency Euro held steady against the U.S. Dollar, retaining most of the gains derived from yesterday’s rebound. As reported at 2:20 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the Euro was trading against the greenback at $1.3220, well off the 2½ month low struck on Tuesday; one trader in Japan believes that, at least in the near term, the Euro may have hit bottom.
Yesterday’s announcement by Jean-Claude Trichet, the ECB President, that the ECB would continue with their current action plan to offer short to medium term funding, in the form of 1-week, 1-month and 3-month notes, to those banks deemed vulnerable, a program that would continue through the first quarter of 2011, was disappointing to the markets.
However, according to traders, the ECB yesterday purchased Irish and Portuguese debt instruments, which helped the Euro and to allay growing panic in the Eurozone.
Markets today will watch for the U.S. non-farms payroll data release later today; the consensus is that the data will show that more than 140,000 new jobs were added last month. Some traders expect that strong data will whet risk appetite, benefiting the Euro.
That expected data, however, will contrast with yesterday’s data which showed that initial jobless claim benefits rose more than economists had expected.