Yield for Dollar, Yen Could Push Dollar Lower

Several factors are currently in play concerning the dollar, yen yield, which could push the U.S. dollar down in the short term.

With a wider spread the Japanese will invest in the U.S. dollar, while a shrinking spread causes them to place their money elsewhere.

On Thursday, March 1, the spread between U.S. and Japanese note yields (yen against the dollar) hit 0.29 percentage point, the widest it has been since August 2011.

The risk for the dollar, yen correlation is the low yields in the U.S., which are expected to remain in place for some time, combined with a possible upswing in the economy of Japan.

That combination, could, in the short term, cause the yield spread to shrink.

U.S. Dollar Trades Mixed Against Major Currencies

A day after Ben Bernanke helped bolster the strength of the U.S. dollar by not mentioning any more plans for quantitative easing, the greenback fell back to earth, trading mixed against other major currencies.

Most of the important economic news centered on unemployment, which in the United States remained level, dropping only slightly, while unemployment in the Euro zone climbed to its highest level since the introduction of the Euro as a currency in 1999.

Of the 17 countries using the Euro as currency, unemployment plunged to 10.7 percent for January, pushing it down against the dollar to $1.3316 in the latter part of the trading day.

The British pound climbed against the U.S. dollar from $1.5925 to $1.5953.

Other currencies strengthening against the dollar were the yen and the Canadian dollar. The dollar fell from 81.18 yen to 81.08, and from 98.89 Canadian cents to 98.57 Canadian cents.

Against the Swiss franc the U.S. dollar climbed from 0.9039 to 0.9059.