The Japanese yen continued to rise today, gaining for the fourth consecutive trading session against the US dollar and for the fifth versus the Great Britain pound, as concerns about the situation in Ukraine made investors stick to safer assets.
The Crimea region will hold a referendum over the weekend, deciding whether to separate from Ukraine and join Russia. Meanwhile, the United States say that the referendum would be illegal and Russia should back off from annexation of Crimea. The political tensions translate into nervousness on the Forex market, making traders to favor currencies that are perceived to be a safe haven.
The minutes of the last month’s Bank of Japan policy meeting were released today. They said nothing particularly new, but one of the Board members said that it would be prudent to set the time limit for the current quantitative and qualitative easing program to two years.
USD/JPY fell from 101.82 to 101.66 as of 5:30 GMT today. EUR/JPY declined from 141.22 to 140.91 and GBP/JPY edged down from 169.28 to 168.94.
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