Usd/jpy Trades Below 100

[Guest FxNet]

The US dollar slid against the yen during a quiet Asian session today, trading below the key 100 yen level and touching a low of 99.56 before steadying at 99.80 by the end of the session.

Much of the reason behind the slide is due to profit taking as market participants are unwilling to take the USDJPY pair too high as there are expectations of continued quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve, which tends to have a weakening effect on the dollar.

The euro remains resilient despite the long-run uncertainties surrounding the economic and financial health of the region. EURUSD continues to trade above the key $1.35 handle, hitting a high of $1.3522 in the Asian session today. Euro reached as high as $1.3540 yesterday.

Sterling traded an extremely tight range against the dollar, between $1.6098 and $1.6123.

There weren’t many surprises from the minutes from the Reserve Bank of Australia’s policy meeting released today from the meeting two weeks ago. The assessment of the economy in the Reserve Bank of Australia’s latest meeting minutes was relatively upbeat but did reiterate the value of the AUD is still too high.

The optimism on the Australian economy and a broadly weaker US dollar helped lift aussie, with AUDUSD rising to $0.9430.