Yen Climbs on Worse-Than-Expected US Macroeconomic Data
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The Japanese yen climbed against most other major currencies after US macroeconomic report left Forex market participants disappointed and made them seek a safe haven.
US employment data was disastrous, signaling that growth of employment in the United States is stalling. Non-farm payrolls grew by just 69,000, more than two times below the average estimate of 151,000. The unemployment rate unexpectedly ticked up by 0.1 percentage point to 8.2 percent. Most other reports were also worse than expected.
The poor fundamental data spurred speculations that the Federal Reserve may ease its monetary policy. Such speculations took away a large portion of the dollar’s appeal as a safe currency. The yen profited from that as today it was basically the only safe currency that investors, seeking shelter from economic turbulence, could turn to.
USD/JPY was down from 78.33 to 78.17 as of 15:44 GMT today after it reached 77.65 intraday — the lowest level since February 14. EUR/JPY traded near its opening level of 96.85, following to the record low of 95.58. GBP/JPY dropped from 120.66 to 120.22 and its intraday low of 118.77 was the lowest since January 19.
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The US dollar weakened today as non-farm payrolls came out somewhat disappointing, increasing prospects for a next round of quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve and reducing appeal of the greenback.