By: Barbara Zigah
The U.S. Dollar hovered close to a 3-week peak versus the Japanese Yen in Asian trading today on investor speculation that the United States’ Quantitative Easing program, instituted by the Federal Reserve Bank, will not be extended past the planned end in June. In a recently televised interview, the president of the Dallas branch of the Federal Reserve commented that, in his opinion, the central bank was unlikely to embark on a third round of asset purchases, echoing the sentiment of other Fed board members.
Those comments have given investors a reason to favor risk appetite again, the implication that, in the absence of quantitative easing, the Fed might actually consider a rate hike. As reported at 2:06 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the U.S. Dollar was trading against the Yen at 82.90 Yen, slipping off the high of 83.01 Yen struck earlier in the session on the EBS trading platform. In late trading yesterday in New York, the Dollar stood at 82.48 Yen.
The U.S. Dollar Index, a gauge of the greenback’s strength versus a weighted basket of major currencies, including the Yen, was recently at 76.305 .DXY, up from 76.151 .DXY.