By: Barbara Zigah
The U.S. Dollar steadied against multiple currencies in Asian trading today after it made brief gains precipitated by the respective falls of the New Zealand and Australian Dollars on worse than expected economic data.
As reported at 2:58 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the New Zealand Dollar touched on a 5-month trough to trade at $0.6960 following the release of data which showed that the N.Z. jobless rate rose to a 10-year peak. Investors took that as an indication that interest rates may not be increased anytime in the near term. In Australia, the Aussie continues to struggle in the wake of that country’s central bank decision to hold interest rates at their present levels, even though analysts and investors alike expected a hike in the benchmark rate. The Australian Dollar also lost ground on the news that retail sales numbers fell farther than originally expected in the last month of 2009, despite the fact that November’s retail sales were revised upward. Versus the U.S. Dollar, the Aussie traded at $0.8772, a new 6-week low.
The single currency Euro, another high yielding currency, also fell against the U.S. Dollar, trading to a low of $1.3866 and approaching the 7-month low hit earlier this week on the EBS trading platform when it traded at $1.3851. The Euro has been struggling in recent weeks with the continuing deficit problems in certain European states; Spain and Portugal are expected to join the list of Euro-zone countries facing fiscal problems.
U.S. Dollar Steadies as High-Yielders Take a Hit
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.