By: Barbara Zigah
In Asian trading, the U.S. Dollar Index approached a new 15-month low versus a group of six major currencies. The U.S. Dollar Index traded at 74.93 .DXY during the previous trading session, the lowest price since August 2008, before edging back up today to 75.110 .DXY, a .1% increase. Yesterday’s drop was the past quarter’s biggest decline in a single day. Market players attribute the Dollar’s lows to investors returning to leveraged carry trades using the U.S. currency as funding, in light of the Federal Reserve’s continuing stance to keep interest rates in the United States suppressed.
Benefiting from the continued pressure on the U.S. Dollar are higher yielding currencies such as the single currency Euro and the Australian and New Zealand Dollars. As reported at 2:21 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the Australian Dollar traded at $0.9324, hovering near a 15-month high of $0.9330 before slipping to $0.9287. In yesterday’s trading session, the Aussie gained 1%. Also seeing gains is the New Zealand Dollar, which rose more than 2% yesterday; and was trading today at $0.7408. The Euro slipped to $1.4980, a slight drop of .1%, however in yesterday’s trading it rose above $1.50, falling just shy of the 2009 high trade of $1.5064.
U.S. Dollar Nears 15-month Troughs versus High yielding Currencies
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.