By: Barbara Zigah
In light Asian trading today, the U.S. Dollar and Japanese Yen both gave up last week’s gains to higher yielding currencies. As reported at 4:04 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, versus the Australian Dollar, the U.S. Dollar slipped to $0.9234, a decline of .1%; versus the single currency Euro, the greenback held steady at $1.4380, though at one point in the trading session it had been up nearly .2%. The Japanese Yen slipped .2% against the Euro, to trade at 130.88 Yen. Analysts attribute the Yen and Dollar’s earlier session rise to investor profit taking on global growth-linked currencies, including the Australian currency, following the release of quarterly earnings reports from U.S. financial giant, J.P. Morgan Chase.
Expected out later this week are earnings reports from major U.S. financial sector firms, including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America. One foreign exchange analyst in Tokyo suggested that the worldwide financial crisis is still impacting the American banking sector to a large degree, so cautious optimism should continue to be exercised by investors. He further warns that if the earnings numbers bring the equity markets down, market players are likely to pick up the Yen and Dollar.
The U.S. markets are closed today for an American holiday, and trading is expected to be quite subdued in the rest of the world’s markets.
Yen and Dollar Slip in Quiet Asian Trading
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.