Yen Declines Further Against Major Rivals
The Japanese currency extended European session’s downtrend against major opponents during New York morning trading on Thursday.
The yen declined further against the Swiss franc in New York morning deals today. At present, the yen is trading near a fresh multi-month low of 90.39 versus the franc, compared to yesterday’s close of 89.87.
Against the British pound, the yen plunged further in today’s morning deals and touched a new multi-day low of 148.71 by about 10:50 am ET. At yesterday’s close, the pair was quoted at 147.90. On the downside, 149.18 is seen as the next target level for the US currency.
The Bank of England left its key interest rate unchanged as expected for the tenth month in a row and maintained the size of its quantitative easing measures at GBP 200 billion in an attempt to help the fragile economy out of a long recession.
In its first meeting of the year, the Monetary Policy Committee, led by Governor Mervyn King retained the official Bank Rate paid on commercial bank reserves at a record low 0.5%. This has been the lowest rate since the central bank was established in 1694. The previous change in rate was a reduction of 0.5 percentage points in March 2009.
The Japanese currency also traded lower against the US dollar and the euro in New York morning session today. At 8:00 am ET, the yen dropped to a fresh multi-month low of 93.41 against the greenback and a 3-day low of 133.69 versus the euro, which may be compared to Wednesday’s closing values of 92.33 and 133.03, respectively.
The U.S. Labor Department revealed Thursday that initial jobless claims came in at 434,000 for the week ended on January 2. This was up 1,000 from the previous week’s revised total of 433,000. Economists had expected initial claims to edge up to around 435,000.
