MOSCOW, September 12 (RIA Novosti) - The dollar exchange rate rose amid speculation that the US Federal Reserve will increase interest rates by mid-2015 despite the country's considerable unemployment rate, trading showed.
Analysts noted that statistics on unemployment would have no influence on the Federal Reserve's decision to raise the rates.
"We're going to have weekly variations, but the reality is the labor market has recovered," Andrew Wilkinson, chief market analyst at Interactive Brokers LLC, told Bloomberg on Thursday. "I very much doubt one granular piece of data is going to change anything."
As of 04:26 GMT the euro-dollar exchange rate had fallen to $1.2919 from $1.2925 the day before. The dollar-yen exchange rate rose to 107.367 yen from 107.1 yen the day before. The US Dollar Index, which charts the strength of the dollar against six world currencies through a weighted geometric mean, increased by 0.08 percent, reaching 84.34.
The number of US citizens filing for first-time jobless benefits unexpectedly increased by 11,000 in comparison to the previous week and totaled 315,000 ahead of a Federal Reserve meeting next week. This rate exceeded analysts" expectations by 15,000 and turned out to be the worst in the past two months.
The Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee is scheduled to meet September 16-17. Market insiders anticipate that interest rates will be increased earlier than previously expected.
