Dollar Struggles Against the Yen Despite A Rally In Asian Markets

During late Asian hours, the U.S. Dollar was seen sliding against the Yen and the Euro. The greenback continues to trade rangebound as the positive market mood has failed to spurr a rally in the world’s reserve currency.

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Broadly Weaker

The U.S. dollar battled against the yen to touch the 114 level as it hovered around 113.68, down 0.36% against the yen. The greenback was also trading marginally lower against the euro at 1.1136, for a small decline of 0.09%. The dollar index was mainly lower against major currencies 0.11% to 96.77.

In Japan, the market traded with improved sentiment on the back of the rally in oil prices and better global market sentiment, however, that did not strengthen the dollar buying mood. Most of the time, a rally in the yen and euro is indicative of a fading equity outlook due to inherent risks. But today the scenario is a bit unusual as equities and yen are gaining ground together.

Fed Minutes Weigh

According to Tokyo-based analysts, the weakness in the greenback is on account of beliefs that the U.S. interest rate hike pace will slow down this year, even though a pace has not really been set considering only one hike has been made. The minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee, released yesterday, were interpreted as dovish, as per Nomura Securities chief foreign-exchange strategist, Yunosuke Ikeda.

The minutes indicated that the Central Bank had a difficult time chalking out its policy amid the global economic gloom and China’s volatility.

On the other hand, the Australian dollar took a plunge against the greenback after poor jobs data in the Outback. The Australian Bureau of Statistics posted a decline in the number of employed youth by 7,900 last month. The data came widely below the expectations of a 15,000 increase. At the same time, the unemployment rate in the region grew to 6% in January from 5.8% in December.

The Australian dollar had shed as much as 0.50% against the dollar to 0.7147. The British pound was also down against the greenback at 1.4280.

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