Market News

The U.S. Dollar held steady near recently established peaks versus the Japanese Yen in Asian trading today, spurred by year end corporate demand. Today is the final trading day of 2009 for a significant number of Japanese firms which will be closed until January 4th 2010

With growing investor demand for the U.S. Dollar, the Australian Dollar slipped in Asian trading today, closing lower for the 6th straight trading session and striking a new 11-week low. As reported at 5:00 p.m. (AEDT) in Sydney, the Australian Dollar traded at $0.8759; on Tuesday, it closed at $0.8794

In Tokyo trading today, the U.S. Dollar continued to gain versus the Japanese Yen, touching on a 2-month high, and the single currency Euro, which has been under recent pressure.

In Asian trading today, the U.S. Dollar held close to a 3-month peak versus the Euro as market players moved to short cover their U.S. currency positions ahead of this week’s Christmas holiday.

After three days of declines, the single currency Euro finally made some headway against the U.S. Dollar, rising to $1.4396 from $1.4338 reported yesterday in late New York trading, rebounding from an earlier low of $1.4306. The Euro’s rebound follows the release of political news from Pakistan that a coup attempt had been thwarted, reviving risk appetite for high-yielding currencies

With investors’ winding up their short positions, the U.S. Dollar rose to a 3-month peak in Asian trading today, following the Federal Reserve’s upbeat message which lent support to the greenback’s recent rebound

In Tokyo trading, the U.S. Dollar approached a multi-month high versus the single currency Euro in advance of the Federal Reserve statement which will be issued at the conclusion of their policy meeting later today. Investors are hoping the statement will provide clues as to when the administration will start withdrawing its current loose monetary policy.

Markets continue to ponder the anticipated actions of the United States Federal Reserve Bank, resulting in a subdued U.S. Dollar in Asian trading today. As reported at 2:49 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the U.S. Dollar Index remained relatively flat, trading at 76.407 .DXY, well off the 6-week high hit last week.

With the Abu Dhabi governing announcing that it will assist Dubai with its debt repayment problems, to the tune of $10 billion in financial assistance, the single currency Euro gained against the U.S. Dollar in London trading today. Once the news was released, the U.S. Dollar declined broadly with the Euro being the immediate benefactor of Abu Dhabi’s largesse. As reported at 8:55 am (GMT) in London, the Euro gained .2% to trade at $1.4656, helped along as well by a .8% gain in share prices in the European market.

The U.S. Dollar and the single currency Euro moved up against the Japanese Yen in Asian trading today on the release of strong economic data from China which showed that industrial output rose more than 19% from the same period the previous year

The Australian unemployment report beat analyst’s forecasts last month, with the jobless rate falling .1% to 5.8%, raising investor expectations that another interest rate hike from the current 3.75% will be forthcoming

The single currency Euro continued its decline for the third consecutive day following the news that Fitch Ratings Agency had downgraded the debt rating of Greece from A- to BBB+ with the possibility of further downgrades in the future.

Investor speculation following the stronger than expected recent U.S. jobs data, that the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank might consider raising key interest rates from their historic lows, was dashed. Yesterday, confirmation came from the head of the Federal Reserve Bank, Ben Bernanke, as well as N.Y.

The U.S. Dollar slipped versus the Japanese Yen in Asian trading today, as exporters from Japan booked profits after Friday’s sharp gain in the U.S. currency which was precipitated by better than predicted employment data from the United States.