Posted on October 16, 2013 by the XM Investment Research Desk at 7:00 am GMT The main development of the session was that the rating agency Fitch Ratings put the United States on negative credit watch because of the country’s failure to raise the debt limit in a timely manner. Despite the downgrade, the agency still believed that the debt ceiling would be raised soon. The US dollar managed to put in a strong performance against the Japanese Yen, gaining 0.30% to 98.47 – not far from the highs of the previous days at 98.69. The dollar briefly traded under 98 yen following the Fitch announcement but managed to rebound on optimism that deal would be struck to avert a debt default after October 17. Despite the bad news, the dollar also managed to eke out a marginal gain of 0.05% versus the euro, to 1.3520. The dollar also rose against pound sterling, gaining 0.09% to 1.5983. The pound was looking ahead to the release of the August unemployment rate at 0830 GMT, as well as the claimant count for September. Unemployment has taken on added significance for the pound after the Bank of England’s forward guidance that loose monetary policy would be maintained until the unemployment rate falls below 7%. Source: XM P.S. Comments are highly appreciated. Also read this article: 'Dump The Dollar', China Daily Op-Ed Writer Says http://onforb.es/19GAjaU via @forbes It will be disastrous if China dumps the dollar, and move to form a BRIC currency, or a basket of other currencies. p.p.s. Agreements with UK to give boost to wider use of yuan in London - http://goo.gl/news/67w8 p.p.p.s. 6 ways a default could hurt the world - http://goo.gl/news/NA3S