The U.S. Dollar traded within narrow ranges against major currencies on Friday in Tokyo as investors are waiting for new leads prior to the release of the U.S. economic data today and the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting which starts next week, Tuesday.
Following the news that China intends to curb fuel demand, oil prices fell by 3.5% and the U.S. Dollar came under pressure to sell from short-term investors who decided to cash out their long U.S. Dollar positions. It appears that investors will continue to play the wait-and-see game about interest rate hikes and which central bank will make the first move to hike interest rates.
To understand the U.S. monetary policy, investors are anxiously waiting for the press release of next week’s meeting of the FOMC.
Investors are also looking forward to the release of the United States regional and state employment data, as well as the unemployment data, for May. In addition, the non-farm payroll data, which will be released next week, will be closely scrutinized.
On June 20, 2008 at 01:00 pm (04:00 GMT) in Sydney, the U.S. Dollar traded at 107.86 Yen, versus 108.00 Yen, while the Euro traded at $1.5509 versus $1.5495 in late trading in New York.
Unexpected rise in May U.K. sales has raised expectations that the U.K. central bank will hike interest rates soon resulting in a surge in Pound Sterling.