Yen, Swiss franc weaken

Yen, Swiss franc weaken

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The US dollar strengthened this week on new, stronger than expected data from both the manufacturing and services sectors. On Friday, new data from the US Labor Department showed that unemployment was up to 4.5 percent in April while only 88,000 new jobs were created in the month, the smallest gain in over two years, but investors continued to emphasize the good news over the bad on the theory that if service and manufacturing continue to expand, employment numbers will improve.

The greenback added 0.3 percent to $1.9920 against sterling during the week, while it gained 0.4 percent to $1.2590 versus the euro and was up 0.5 percent to ¥120.10 in relation to the Japanese yen.

The yen, meanwhile, dropped 0.1 percent to ¥163.20 versus the euro over the week after hitting a new record low of ¥163.60 against the shared currency on Thursday. The yen is still being affected by investors who sell it to finance high-risk carry trades.

The Swiss franc also reached a record low in relation to the euro, falling to SFr1.6535 on Tuesday. Better than expected consumer price inflation figures in Switzerland, however, allowed it to gain back some of its losses. Still, the Swiss currency ended the week having dropped 0.2 percent to SFr1.6460 in relation to the euro. It fell 0.6 percent to SFr1.2110 versus the US dollar.

The Australian dollar was 1.1 percent weaker in relation to the US dollar at the end of the week than its value at the beginning of the week, to a one-month low of $0.8210 after the Reserve Bank of Australia dropped its inflation forecast for the year.