By: Barbara Zigah
With investors moving to cover their short positions, the U.S. Dollar edged up versus a group of six major currencies in Friday’s trading. As reported at 3:26 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the U.S. Dollar Index, a measure of the greenback’s value versus a six major currencies, traded at 79.703 .DXY, an increase of 0.2% in Tokyo trading, though still below the week’s high of 81.466 .DXY briefly touched upon Monday.
In yesterday’s trading, the U.S. Dollar fell on the news of data coming out of the United States; both labor and retail sales data were better than expected. The 30-year U.S. Treasury bond auction also fueled the increase in risk appetite. According to one forex trader in Japan, investors are likely booking profits in anticipation of the weekend, and this is creating considerable movement in currencies such as the Australian Dollar and the single currency Euro.
The Australian Dollar eased back to $0.8151, a loss of 0.5%, while the Euro fell to $1.4083, a loss of .2%. Markets are awaiting news out of the upcoming G8 meeting of finance ministers, which will meet today and tomorrow in Italy, to evaluate the global efforts to reverse the economic crisis. Some dealers, however, don’t believe that the meeting will have much of an impact on the foreign exchange markets, but are curious to learn what the exit strategies will be once it’s clear that the crisis policies are no longer needed.
U.S. Dollar Index Edges up on Investor Profit Taking
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.