By: Barbara Zigah
The single currency Euro surged in Asian trading today, following the central bank of Switzerland’s selling off of Swiss Francs. As reported at 4:07 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the Euro was holding steady at 1.4730 Francs, a .6% rise on the day. Traders commented that SNB (the Swiss National Bank) was selling Swiss Francs for Euros on the EBS trading platform; the Euro traded up to 1.4905 Francs, up from 1.4700 Francs earlier. At one point in the trading day, the price had dropped as low as 1.4551 Francs, and market players felt certain that the central bank would soon intervene as they had in 2009 when the Franc had appreciated sharply.
Despite the intervention of the SNB, the Euro remains under heavy pressure from most currencies. Recent comments from Jean-Claude Trichet, the ECB (European Central Bank) President, did little to assuage market worries when he said that many Euro-zone members are expected to have a large or rising fiscal imbalance.
Later today in the U.S., the markets will await news from the U.S. Labor Department of the monthly jobs numbers, and economists are predicting that nearly 5,000 jobs were created last month, despite the fact that weekly jobless claims rose unexpectedly.
Swiss Intervene in Asian Trading, Sending the Euro Higher
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.