By: Barbara Zigah
The Japanese Yen slipped to a 2-week low versus the U.S. Dollar in Asian trading today, as higher share prices in Asian markets triggered investors’ risk appetite, spurring investors to dump their safe-haven Yen in favor of the greenback. As reported at 3:03 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the U.S. Dollar was trading at 90.69 Yen, the highest trade in nearly 2 weeks. The U.S. Dollar Index, a measure of the U.S. currency’s value versus other major currencies, traded at 80.168 .DXY, slightly off from the 80.451 .DXY traded earlier.
Whenever Asian share prices move higher, an indication that investors in Japan are looking for higher risk assets with their accompanying higher yields in overseas assets, Yen gains tend to be suppressed. In early Asian trading, both the Nikkei and the Shanghai Composite were up 1.9% and .82%, respectively.
Analysts suggest that the decline in the Yen will be short-lived, however, as exporters in Japan need a heavy volume of the Japanese currency ahead of their fiscal year end which comes on March 31st. Yen demand also rises whenever key U.S. economic data is soft, for example, if the upcoming retail sales numbers are weaker than expected.