U.S. Dollar Index Rises on Labor Data

The U.S. Dollar Index struck a 2-month peak during the Asian session following Friday’s unexpectedly good U.S. labor report which suggested that the economic fundamentals of the United States might be built on sturdier stuff than originally presumed. As reported at 11:57 a.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the U.S. Dollar Index, which measures the strength of the greenback relative to a weighted basket of other major currencies, was trading at 80.629 .DXY a level not seen since September 7th.

Against the Japanese Yen, the U.S. Dollar was trading at 80.53 Yen just off Friday’s levels in New York and hovering just below 80.68 Yen, a 4-month peak struck after the non-farms payroll data release showed 171,000 new jobs were added in October, well above the experts’ forecasts which ranged only as high as about 125,000. The unemployment rate edged up to 7.9% as expected, however.

Analysts say that the greenback is likely to maintain the bullish trend, which favor the U.S. dollar even over the relative safety of the Japanese Yen as key indicators, including industrial production data, suggest a strong drop off of the economy which unlike the U.S.’s consumer driven economy is focused primarily on manufacturing. The Bank of Japan has been aggressively loosening its policy over the past several months but more may be needed for an additional boost.