Dollar slightly stronger against emerging market currencies
AFP
AFP, TOKYO: The dollar was little changed against most of its Asia-Pacific peers yesterday as foreign exchange dealers looked ahead to closely watched US employment figures released later in the day.
A handful of currencies including the South Korean won fell against the dollar as most regional equity markets paused after a two-day rally marking the beginning of the month. With analysts hoping for fresh clues from the US jobs report on whether the Federal Reserve will change its monetary policy this year, the greenback edged up against a handful of other currencies from emerging economies.
Todays US payrolls number has once again been labelled a much watch, Chris Weston, chief markets strategist at IG Markets, said.
To be fair, I think traders are getting a bit exhausted of these event risks which are supposed to carry so much weight that they can alter the investment landscape. Equity markets have seen a spike in volatility since
China suddenly devalued its yuan currency in August, triggering the largest quarterly selloff since 2011. The turmoil in financial markets was a key factor the Fed held off raising near-zero interest rates in September, but investors still expect the hike to come before the end of the year.
The won declined 0.35 per cent against the US unit, while the Malaysian ringgit was down 0.29 percent, the Singapore dollar fell 0.20 percent, and the Thai baht lost 0.21 percent. Other Asia-Pacific currencies rose against the dollar: the Aussie advanced 0.27 per cent to 70.49 US cents, the Indian rupee rose 0.11 percent, the Taiwan dollar was up 0.07 per cent and the Indonesian rupiah gained 0.10 percent.
