The USD lost value in the Asian market in the first session of the week.
In the first trading session of the week, the USD lost value in the Asian market after investors commented that the newly released report on weak wage growth in the US could reduce the demand for spending by consumers in this country and slow down the timing of the US Federal Reserve (Fed) interest rate hike.
In Singapore, the greenback was exchanged at 118.13 yen/USD, down from 118.46 yen/USD in New York in the last session of the week (January 9).
Meanwhile, the common European currency was traded at 1.1856 USD/euro, up from 1.1842 USD/euro in the US earlier. The euro/yen exchange rate stood at 140.04 yen/euro, compared to 140.29 yen/euro on January 9.
Japan's Tokyo market was closed for a holiday on January 12.
According to a recent announcement by the US Department of Commerce, the world's largest economy created 252,000 jobs in the last month of 2014, and the unemployment rate in December 2014 decreased to 5.6%, compared to 5.8% in November 2014. However, the increase in basic hourly wages, an indicator measuring the "health" of the US economy, decreased sharply compared to November's figure and increased only 1.7% compared to the same period in 2013.
Some analysts said the market reacted strongly to the weak wage increase because this factor directly affects US consumer spending.
In addition, the above report could cause the Fed to delay the interest rate hike (which analysts say is likely to fall in April 2015), making the USD less attractive in the eyes of investors.
Markets are turning their attention to the European Central Bank (ECB) policy meeting on January 22 for clues on the scale of its quantitative easing (QE) program, which is seen as one of the ECB’s efforts to combat the risk of deflation in the Eurozone.
In the same trading session, the USD also decreased in value compared to many other currencies in Asia-Pacific. In particular, the Korean won reached its highest level in more than two months against the USD. Specifically, the won was traded at 1,081.4 won/USD, the highest level since November 4, 2014./.
According to Vietnam+
