Dollar Higher on Improved Sentiment

After last Friday’s surprisingly improved labor data from the U.S. the greenback moved higher against its Japanese counterpart while the Euro firmed after hitting a multi-month trough as it attempts to recover from last Thursday’s European Central Bank decision. Analysts say that the non-farms payroll figures are providing support for the U.S. Dollar, but also there doesn’t appear to be a clear cut reason to support the Japanese Yen given recently released data, i.e. public pension funds, corporate mergers and acquisitions and NISA, which is tarnishing they Yen’s worth in the eyes of FX traders, at least.

As reported at 11:33 a.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the USD/JPY were trading at 102.57 Yen, edging up 0.1% and adding to Friday’s gains. The EUR/USD steadied at $1.3642, moving away from Thursday’s trough at $1.3503. An improvement in risk sentiment is helping provide some lift to commodity-linked currencies like the Australian and New Zealand Dollars; the AUD/USD was trading at $0.9348, just off last Friday’s peak of $0.9358 while the NZD/USD edged 0.3% higher to $0.8515, moving well away from last week’s 3-month low.

Labor Data Shows Clear Improvement

On Friday, the U.S. Labor Department announced that 217,000 new jobs had been added in May, providing investors with some reassurance that the largest economy in the world has effectively moved away from the winter slump.

Barbara Zigah

After working on Wall Street, Barb began her second career as a freelance writer at Daily Forex, where the CEO recognized fresh, untapped potential and was willing to give her a try. She’s never looked back. Since then, she’s worked steadily as a freelance writer and editor in the financial services and Forex-related industry.