U.S. Dollar and Japanese Yen see Gains on Closure of High Risk Positions

By: Barbara
As reported at 12:15 p.m. in Tokyo today, the U.S. Dollar made gains versus a group of six major currencies; it traded up .2% from Friday’s late trade of 83.161 .DXY in the United States. At the same time, the Japanese Yen saw broad gains and touched on a 2-month high against the U.S. Dollar; the Greenback slipped .5%, trading at 94.75 Japanese Yen, near 94.55 Yen, a 2-month low touched earlier on the EBS trading platform. Both currency movements are attributed to the decline in global stock markets, which prompted investors to pull out of risky currencies. In particular, a drop in Asian share prices propped up the Yen and the U.S. Dollar. The Nikkei fell 2.8%, holding just steady over the 9,000 threshold and in Hong Kong, shares fell 2.5% on the release of data indicating that the local economy suffered a record contraction.

The Euro slipped to a 3-week low versus the Japanese Yen, following the release of Euro Zone data showing that the economies of the Euro Zone contracted at a quicker rate than expected. The Euro dropped to 126.99 Japanese Yen on the EBS trading platform, the lowest price in more than 2 weeks, before edging up slightly to 127.30 Yen, though still a loss of .8% on the day’s trading.