Japanese Yen Struggles to Suppress Rise

By: Barbara Zigah

The Japanese Yen was on the defensive during the Asian trading session as the common currency Euro reached a 5-month peak against it; as reported at 1:08 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the EUR/JPY pair was trading at 110.15 on the EBS trading platform before paring gains and trading at 109.91 Yen. The weakened Yen also traded lower against the Australian Dollar, with the AUD/JPY pair trading at 88.62, the highest price in about 10-months. Analysts say that currency speculators are increasingly betting against the Japanese Yen, given that the currency is the choice of the carry trade crowd, with the U.S. Dollar losing some appeal thanks to rising yields on U.S. Treasury instruments.

Any correction of the Yen could come from the rising price of oil as the dispute with Iran over their nuclear program begins to heat up again. That fear of a price spike in oil could also put a damper on the U.S.’s recovery, which is enough to sour sentiment for higher risk investments into the safe haven instruments. Friday’s release of U.S. consumer inflation data showed that prices spiked to a 10-month high primarily as the cost for gasoline creeps ever higher.