In today’s trading, the US Dollar fell to nearly a 15 year low against the Yen. The greenback went as low as 84.9 Yen, but later gained some ground to 85.345. This is still a very low level historically.
The Swiss Franc also gained on the dollar, rising about 0.8% in total, though it was even higher during the trading session.
What may seem strange is that the US Dollar gained against the Euro rising to 1.2817$ per Euro.
This seems a bit contradictory. Why has this happened?
The answer is that a combination of risk aversion and bad financial news out of the US have appeared together.
Risk aversion is connected to the bad news out of the US and a general feeling of uncertainty that has spread through the global market. No one seems to know what the future hold, not even the financial experts we rely on. This causes investors to rush to “safe haven” investments such as gold, the USD, Yen, and Swiss Franc. This is why the USD rose against the Euro. It is simply considered safer.
However, as far as safe havens go, the US Dollar appears to be less attractive these days with less than positive news coming out of the US. New jobless claims rose to a new 9 month high a few days ago. Coupled with other financial data that paints the supposed US economy recovery in bad light, it is clear why the US Dollar is considered the least safe of all the “safe havens”.
This is why the US Dollar lost ground to the Yen and the Swiss Franc. There is just more uncertainty at the moment with the greenback than with those other two currencies. However, in times of risk aversion, any safe haven is better than none which is why the EUR/USD went down.
What the future holds is, of course, anyone’s guess. It seems that we’re entering a period of weakness for the dollar, until more positive financial data emerges.