Manila, Philippines – The peso skidded to a new record low against the dollar on Wednesday, Nov. 12, in line with the weakness of the yen and a basket of currencies against the greenback.
The currency last traded at P59.17 per dollar, its worst performance yet. That exchange rate was an overnight loss of 19 centavos.
The dollar rose as it recovered some of its losses from the previous session, helped in part by a weaker yen that slid to a nine-month low.
The yen has fallen nearly 0.8 percent for the week thus far, bruised by the overall risk-on market sentiment on optimism over an imminent end to the US government shutdown, and as investors expect greater fiscal largesse under new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.
Against a basket of currencies, the dollar rose 0.1 percent to 99.54.
“The alternative data, I think, overall points to a softer labor market picture … but whether we’re seeing a worsening deterioration in the U.S. labour market, I think that remains an open question,” said Sim Moh Siong, a currency strategist at Bank of Singapore.
“I think the broad set of data suggests that the labor market is cooling, but only gradually so, and I think we should see some confirmation of that from the return of official data likely by next week, with the reopening of the U.S. government,” he added.
Traders are pricing in a roughly 64 percent chance that the Fed would ease rates by 25 basis points next month, though are awaiting an imminent reopening of the US government for further clues as a backlog of economic data is set to be released.
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives is due to vote on Wednesday afternoon on a compromise that would restore funding to government agencies and end a shutdown that started on Oct. 1.
