The Forex market is still favoring safe currencies, helping the yen to keep yesterday’s gains today. The state of China’s economy and the situation in Ukraine did not improve the traders’ sentiment and this makes sure that the Japanese currency stays in favor.
The poor economic data from China took market participants by surprise, kicking copper and other industrial metals down and weakening commodity currencies along with them. Meanwhile, tensions between Russia and Ukraine are heating as Crimea prepares for a referendum that may result in separation of the region from Ukraine. These factors allow the yen to stay in Forex traders’ favor.
It looks like the pessimistic forecast proved wrong, at least for now. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand holds monetary policy meeting today, and it is expected that the bank will perform an interest rate hike. Such decision could drive the yen down versus the New Zealand dollar but it is not likely to have a noticeable impact on the broader market.
USD/JPY was down from 103.01 to 102.95 as of 4:50 GMT today. EUR/JPY declined from 142.76 to 142.63. GBP/JPY dropped from 171.86 to 171.17 yesterday and remained near this level on the current trading session.
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