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The U.S. dollar is seemingly back in the hot seat after months of fluctuation. It surged against the Yen this week, as the U.S. government reported more jobs added than was previously predicted, which in turn skyrocketed the stock market and increased the value of the dollar.
Nonfarm U.S. payrolls rose by 165,000 last month, according to the Department of Labor. Similarly, the joblessness rate declined to 7.5 percent, its lowest number in more than four years. Hiring was also boosted and is the strongest it’s been in recent years. Economists expect the payrolls to rise by 145,000 and the unemployment rate to remain steady.
U.S. and European indexes increased by a healthy 1 percent, which in turn boosted the S&P 500 by about 5 percent. Both the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 made incredible gains, with S&P 500 surpassing the 1,600 marker and the Dow Jones breaking through to 15,000, respectively both setting benchmarks for 2013. The Russell 2000 .RUT index was also at an all-time high.
Commodities such as crude oil, copper and others posted gains of more than 6 percent.
“The employment number was definitely the trigger for today’s rally,” said Michael Korn, president at Skokie Energy in Princeton, New Jersey.
The dollar rose about 1.15 percent against the Yen, at 99.08 Yen to one dollar.
“The idea that employment is holding as well as it is in the face of the fiscal headwinds the economy is currently enduring is a very positive sign of the economy’s underlying fundamental improvements,” said Russell Price, a senior economist at Ameriprise Financial Services.
