The Japanese yen jumped against the US dollar to the highest level in a week today as poor economic news from the United States resulted in speculations that the Federal Reserve will postpone the next round of stimulus cuts. The yen was also higher against some other major currencies, including the Great Britain pound, while trading flat versus the euro.
US data was not particularly bad as existing home sales and leading indicators actually rose, just slower than was expected. In fact, initial jobless claims surprised traders positively. Yet disappointment from the reports that were worse than expectations was enough to make the dollar sink against the yen.
The Japanese currency also advanced with the help of unexpectedly poor Chinese data. Additionally, there were talks that Japanese policy makers are discussing possible strategies for exiting quantitative easing.
USD/JPY sank from 104.49 to 103.39 as of 23:30 GMT today. EUR/JPY traded at 141.56 after rising from 141.57 to 142.40, while GBP/JPY dropped from 173.20 to 171.97.
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