Worse than expected US Job Losses rattles the Dollar

JPY

The Yen had a slight rebound day on Wednesday as unemployment fears in the US and pre-G20 jitters took steam out of the US Dollar and Euro. Fundamentally, nothing has changed in Japan since Tuesday’s selloff after a dismal consumer confidence report in Japan, and the common thought is that Japan is still having major problems that will be difficult to overcome.

At 5PM GMT, the Yen was trading up .3% to the Euro to 131.07, up .1% to the USD to 98.82, down .2% to the British Pound to 142.0 and up .3% to the Swiss Franc to 86.57.

USD

Data released on Wednesday showed that the job losses in the US are increasing, however stagnation in the markets due to today’s G20 meeting and European Central Bank interest rate decisions stemmed the losses. Investors troubled by another 742,000 job losses in the US, more than analysts expected, were holding out hope that something positive could come from today’s meetings.

At 5:15 GMT, the dollar was trading down .15% to the Euro to 1.327, down .4% to the Pound to 1.4378, up .42% to the Canadian Dollar to 1.2652, down .4% to the Australian Dollar to .6939 and down .45% to the New Zealand Dollar to .5617.

G20

Today’s G20 is expected to be pivotal in the Forex online markets as French President Nicholas Sarkozy seeks to draft legislation regulating the financial markets including the Foreign Exchange. It is widely believed that President Obama will not push his and British Prime Minister Brown’s spending plan as it has not been met with kind words by most of the delegates in attendance.

As well, the Non-Farm Payroll numbers out of the US are due out on Friday. With dire unemployment numbers coming out on Wednesday this key indicator will be of vital interest to Forex traders holding USD positions.