By Brigid Riley
TOKYO (Reuters) – The yen got some much needed relief as the dollar and U.S. Treasury yields both steadied slightly lower on Thursday after mixed U.S. economic data overnight had markets lowering the odds of the Federal Reserve’s raising interest rates again this year.
The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against six peers, held near overnight levels at 106.78.
The greenback gave up some of its recent gains after U.S. private payrolls increased far less than expected in September, according to the ADP National Employment Report on Wednesday, although that most likely exaggerates the pace of slowdown in the labour market.
Longer dated U.S. Treasury yields eased from 16-year highs after the data and remained off recent highs in the Asian morning.
Meanwhile, the Institute for Supply Management’s (ISM) non-manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) came in 0.9 points lower at 53.6 but remained above the 50 mark, which divides monthly expansion from contraction.
“Although the U.S. economy still appears resilient and arguably too strong, the ISM Services PMI at least provides one data point to suggest that economic activity isn’t taking off again,” said Kyle Rodda, markets analyst at Capital.com, in a note.
The yen, which tends to be sensitive to U.S. yields, last traded around 148.85 yen, down almost 0.2% from late U.S. levels and off Tuesday’s low of 150.165.
Questions about possible intervention by Japanese authorities sparked after the yen strengthened 2% following the 150-line breach, but the Bank of Japan’s money market data showed on Wednesday Japan most likely did not intervene in the currency market the previous day.
Elsewhere, the euro stood mostly flat at $1.0512, keeping above this week’s fresh low of $1.0448.
In a Reuters poll, the median view among 20 analysts on how low the euro will go this month was $1.04, with only one respondent saying the currency would touch parity. No forecaster had a parity call anywhere in their point predictions.
Sterling traded at $1.2139, off of Wednesday’s fresh low of $1.20385 per dollar.
(Reporting by Brigid Riley. Editing by Gerry Doyle)
