By: Barbara Zigah
In Asian trading today, the U.S. Dollar slipped versus the Japanese Yen as exporters from Japan sold off their holdings and reaped the profits from the 83.50 Yen price. As reported at 1:44 p.m. (JST) the U.S. Dollar traded against the Yen at 83.20 Yen, but had been as low as 83.14 Yen earlier in the session; some market players anticipate that the greenback may continue to drop in today’s trading, but don’t believe it will breach the 82.80 Yen barrier. They see the decline today as merely temporal, because speculators’ long term outlook for the U.S. Dollar is heavily bullish.
One analyst in Japan commented that the positive economic indicators from the U.S., as well as the recently rising yields on U.S. Treasury instruments are resulting in increased optimism that the world’s largest economy is on track for recovery. More support for the greenback will be seen tomorrow if the retail sales data proves better than forecast.
In the Eurozone, speculation as to who will be appointed the new head of the ECB following Jean-Claude Trichet’s retirement is weighing heavily on the Euro. The person who many believed would be the top candidate, Axel Weber of Germany, withdrew from contention. The Euro was trading lower from Friday’s late trading in New York; against the U.S. Dollar it traded at $1.3533 and, against the Japanese Yen, 112.63 Yen.