Despite investors’ bet the US Federal Reserve will keep on reducing its stimulus, the US dollar touched the highest level in more than a week versus the Japanese yen.
Fed Chairman Janet Yellen will give her first semi-annual report about the US monetary policy and the economy tomorrow. Yellen will speak before Congress tomorrow for the first time since being sworn in as Fed Chair last February 3.
The dollar traded at ¥102.34 as of 11:19 a.m. (Tokyo time) after reaching ¥102.64, the most since January 31. It incurred 0.1% to $1.3623 per euro after decreasing 1.1% last week.
Europe’s shared currency increased 0.1% to ¥139.43 after accelerating to ¥139.81, the most since January 30.
Yellen’s appearance comes following the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC)’s decision to trim monthly bond purchases by $10 billion to $65 billion last month, noting labor-market indicators that were mingled but on balance displayed further enhancement and economic growth that has recouped in recent quarters. The Fed will meet again on March 18-19.
Payrolls Miss
The Labor Department said last week hiring in the US increased by 113,000 in January, lower than the 180,000 gain that was the median prediction of economists polled by Bloomberg News and after a 75,000 gain last month. Unemployment went down to 6.6%, the lowest since October 2008, previously 6.7 % in December.
The greenback profited 3.7% in the previous year versus a basket of nine developed-country currencies monitored by Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Indexes. The yen fell 7.2%, while the euro progressed 5.9%.
Record Deficit
In December, the shortage in the widest benchmark of Japanese trade went up to ¥638.6 billion (or $6.2 billion), the highest since the data in 1985, based on a finance ministry data today. Foreign investors sold a net ¥1.26 trillion of Japan’s government bonds in December last year, the utmost since September.
The December deficit drove Japan’s 2013 current-account surplus down to around ¥3.3 trillion. A surplus lets Japan to be less dependent on foreign capital and makes the yen a retreat from financial downturn.
Profits in the yen threaten to make the Japan’s exports less competitive, undermining Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s objective to spur growth and battle 15 years of deflation.
The yen will weaken to 105 by March 31, before closing the year at 110, based on the economists’ prediction in a Bloomberg poll of economists. They added it would be taken to levels unnoticed since August 2008.
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company – www.instaforex.com
Despite investors’ bet the US Federal Reserve will keep on reducing its stimulus, the US dollar touched the highest level in more than a week versus the Japanese yen.
Fed Chairman Janet Yellen will give her first semi-annual report about the US monetary policy and the economy tomorrow. Yellen will speak before Congress tomorrow for the first time since being sworn in as Fed Chair last February 3.
The dollar traded at ¥102.34 as of 11:19 a.m. (Tokyo time) after reaching ¥102.64, the most since January 31. It incurred 0.1% to $1.3623 per euro after decreasing 1.1% last week.
Europe’s shared currency increased 0.1% to ¥139.43 after accelerating to ¥139.81, the most since January 30.
Yellen’s appearance comes following the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC)’s decision to trim monthly bond purchases by $10 billion to $65 billion last month, noting labor-market indicators that were mingled but on balance displayed further enhancement and economic growth that has recouped in recent quarters. The Fed will meet again on March 18-19.
Payrolls Miss
The Labor Department said last week hiring in the US increased by 113,000 in January, lower than the 180,000 gain that was the median prediction of economists polled by Bloomberg News and after a 75,000 gain last month. Unemployment went down to 6.6%, the lowest since October 2008, previously 6.7 % in December.
The greenback profited 3.7% in the previous year versus a basket of nine developed-country currencies monitored by Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Indexes. The yen fell 7.2%, while the euro progressed 5.9%.
Record Deficit
In December, the shortage in the widest benchmark of Japanese trade went up to ¥638.6 billion (or $6.2 billion), the highest since the data in 1985, based on a finance ministry data today. Foreign investors sold a net ¥1.26 trillion of Japan’s government bonds in December last year, the utmost since September.
The December deficit drove Japan’s 2013 current-account surplus down to around ¥3.3 trillion. A surplus lets Japan to be less dependent on foreign capital and makes the yen a retreat from financial downturn.
Profits in the yen threaten to make the Japan’s exports less competitive, undermining Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s objective to spur growth and battle 15 years of deflation.
The yen will weaken to 105 by March 31, before closing the year at 110, based on the economists’ prediction in a Bloomberg poll of economists. They added it would be taken to levels unnoticed since August 2008.
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company – www.instaforex.com
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