Swiss franc slightly up

02 Sep, 2006

The Swiss franc edged higher against the dollar and was largely unchanged against other currencies in early trade on Friday ahead of the Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) data and the US employment report due later in the session.
The franc was up 0.2 percent versus the US currency at 1.2299 per dollar.
On Thursday the dollar crept higher after a batch of US economic data landed largely as expected, prompting a bout of position squaring ahead of the US job market report, a key release that could shed some light on the Federal Reserve's rate policy.
The Swiss currency stood at 1.5763 per euro, largely unchanged after the franc had inched down versus the euro on Thursday as European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet signalled that the central bank might raise rates in October by another 25 basis points to 3.25 percent.
Markets now hope to get some more information on the future course of the Swiss economy and the Swiss National Bank's rate policy from the PMI data for August. Analysts expect the Swiss PMI to fall from its 4-month-high hit at 65.1 points in July. The franc traded virtually unchanged versus the yen on Friday at 95.29 yen after having hit an 8-year high of 95.69 yen on Thursday.

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