Better-than-expected China imports helps dollar off session lows * Sterling steadies after volatile swings ahead of Brexit vote By Lisa Twaronite and Shinichi Saoshiro TOKYO, June 8 (Reuters) – The dollar plumbed a fresh four-week trough against a basket of currencies on Wednesday, though better-than-expected Chinese import figures helped it climb off session lows.
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This caused the USA dollar to fall to a five-week low against a basket of currencies. USDJPY has fallen below the key 107 yen level. The US economy only added 38,000 jobs, which was the lowest monthly job gain since 2010.
“We know the Fed wants to carry on normalizing monetary policy but they won’t. if the economy is actually slowing”, Macquarie analyst Matthew Turner said. The euro rose 0.2 percent to $1.1373. Analysts, however, said China still has enormous USA dollar holdings and is likely to keep purchasing gold in order to diversify its forex reserves, which should serve as a supportive factor for the metal.
As if anyone still has the patience to follow her zigs and zags, the Federal Reserve chairwoman, Janet L. Yellen, is no longer offering any hint that the Fed will raise short-term interest rates at its meeting this month, the New York Times reported this week. The speech was the last public appearance by a Fed official before the June meeting.
Meanwhile, the USA dollar pushed higher on Thursday, after falling to five-week lows against a basket of currencies in the prior session amid diminished expectations for a Federal Reserve summer rate hike. The dollar got a small lift overnight after revised figures on US productivity and labour costs in the first quarter supported the view that labour market slack is being gradually reduced.
There were further gains for fixed-income markets with USA 10-year yields at multi-month lows, while German benchmark yields were trading close to record lows below 0.05%.
Speculation over whether Britain will remain in the European Union or not at a referendum on June 23 continued to sway the pound.
Europe’s broad FTSEurofirst 300 index snapped two days of gains to close down 0.54 per cent at 1,352.91.
The New Zealand dollar traded at $0.6960, dipping slightly from a one-month peak of $0.6982 touched overnight.
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The world’s biggest consumer of the yellow metal, China, kept its gold reserves unchanged, at 58.14 million ounces at the end of May, the central bank said on Tuesday.
