By: Barbara Zigah
The U.S. Dollar Index is holding steady ahead of employment data from the U.S. Labor Department which will be released later today, and which investors hope will hasten federal monetary policy changes, including raising of the currently historical low interest rates.
As reported at 11:54 a.m. (GMT) in London, the Dollar Index, a measure of the greenback’s value versus six major currencies, was trading at 77.906 .DXY. A currency economist in Tokyo suggested that dollar strengthening is based largely on the U.S. labor reports. Also helping the dollar is a recent comment from one U.S. monetary policymaker calling for swift action by the Federal Reserve to contain inflationary pressure, and the urging by bank regulators for U.S. banks to shield themselves from rate hikes. Until the data is released at 1:30 p.m. (GMT), currency trading is expected to remain lackluster.
The U.S. Dollar also edged off of a 4-month higher versus the Japanese Yen following comments by the newly appointed Japanese Finance Minister who backtracked on an earlier statement and commented that currency levels should be decided by the market. The U.S. Dollar rose to 93.78 Yen on the EBS trading platform before retreating to 93.12 Yen, a decline of .2%.
U.S. Dollar Holds Steady Ahead of Labor Data Release
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.