By: Barbara Zigah
The U.S. Dollar held near newly established lows in Asian trading today, with the U.S. Dollar Index setting an 11-month low at 75.89 .DXY. The U.S. Dollar Index is used by investors to gauge the strength of the greenback relative to a weighted basket of major currencies, and from all appearances it remains vulnerable following the Federal Reserve’s decision earlier this week to increase quantitative easing measures.
Whetted investor risk appetite is helping to push the Euro and the Australia Dollar higher against the greenback. As reported at 1:07 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the Euro soared as high as $1.4283 at one point in the trading session, before retreating and holding steady just above $1.4200. The Australian Dollar is trading flat against the greenback, still above parity at $1.0151, though falling back from the earlier high of $1.0177, a new 28-year record.
Against the Japanese Yen, the U.S. Dollar was trading at 80.82 Yen, a .1% increase from New York trading, yet still within striking range of the 15-year trough set on Monday. Yesterday, the Bank of Japan ended its policy review with no changes to their current policy; investors had expected the Japanese central bank to expand its own asset buying plan, and analysts see that there may be a future need to do so as some of the economic indicators are expected to come in relatively weak.