During Friday’s Asian trading session the greenback remained steady and is poised to finish off this trading week essentially flat after struggling to gain positive momentum amid growing political uncertainty in the U.S. and the Fed’s lack of clarity as to if and when it intends to rein in existing stimulus plans. The U.S. Dollar Index did manage to eke out a 0.3% gain on Thursday following the release of a labor report which showed fewer than expected new jobless benefit claims but market players believe that the gains were more likely attributed to a consolidation period after last week’s sell off in the wake of the Federal Reserve’s bombshell.
As reported at 1:40 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the U.S. Dollar Index, the gauge by which investors measure the greenback’s strength relative to a weighted average of its major peers, was trading higher at 80.544 .DXY, moving away from the recently struck 7-month low of 80.060 .DXY, but still poised for only a 0.1% gain for the week. The USD/JPY pair traded 0.2% higher to 98.80 Yen, edging up off a session low of 98.67 Yen following comments made by Japan’s Finance Minister who said that the corporate tax rate would be unchanged for the time being.
Focus on Fed Resumes
For the mid-term market players will turn their focus to the upcoming Fed monetary policy meetings to get some hint as to the Fed’s outlook on tapering of its quantitative easing scheme. While some analysts believe that the central bank is likely to wait until the first quarter of next year, others believe it could quickly be brought to the front burner if economic data is supportive.