Yen gets reprieve as dollar dented by private payrolls report
By Brigid Riley
TOKYO (Reuters) — The yen received some much needed relief on Thursday as the dollar settled back and U.S. Treasury yields moderated after mixed U.S. economic data overnight made investors reduce bets on the Federal Reserve raising interest rates again this year.
Having come off its nearly 11-month high, the dollar index, which tracks the greenback against six peers, held near overnight levels, settling at around 106.55.
The greenback gave up some recent gains after U.S. private payrolls increased far less than expected in September, according to the ADP National Employment Report on Wednesday, although analysts said more evidence was needed to be sure how fast the labour market is cooling.
Longer dated U.S. Treasury yields eased from 16-year highs after the data and remained lower in the Asian day.
«There are some indications that the U.S. labour market is cooling down further» but it's still too early to tell, said Moh Siong Sim, currency strategist at Bank of Singapore, putting Friday's non-farm payrolls under close watch.
«The bigger picture is that the overall U.S. growth has been slowing but it's been slowing slower than expected.»
Dollar/yen, which tends to be sensitive to U.S. yields, last traded around 148.53, down about 0.4%.
The yen hit 150.165 on Tuesday, its weakest since October 2022.
The yen's sharp recovery after breaching the 150-line earlier in the week had sparked speculation that Japanese authorities may have intervened to support the currency, but Bank of Japan money market data showed on Wednesday Japan most likely had not intervened.
Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki on Wednesday declined to comment on whether Tokyo had stepped in, and repeated that currency rates must move stably
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