Yen’s Rise Finally Loses Momentum

By: Barbara Zigah

The Yen’s rising momentum seems finally to have faded, but before it did the Japanese currency briefly struck a 3-week peak against the U.S. Dollar, pushed higher by speculators who had hoped that exporters’ repatriations flows would give a bigger boost to the Yen. As reported at 1:13 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the USD/JPY pair retreated to 82.10 Yen after it briefly touched on 81.83 Yen. One senior trader in Japan said that several speculators were caught flat footed as the exporter buying was less robust than they had anticipated. Despite the Yen’s recent brief rise, it is still down nearly 7% on the greenback since the Bank of Japan’s surprising interventionist moves a month ago.

Improving data for the U.S. economy and a relative sense of calm in the Eurozone also are offering support to the greenback, and some strategists anticipate that the Dollar could continue to rise against the Japanese Yen over the next several months, albeit at a slower pace.

Markets focus will likely turn to Europe today ahead off the next meeting of the Eurozone’s finance ministers. The EUR/USD pair surged more than 0.4% to trade at $1.3360. Earlier in the week, following U.S. Fed chief Ben Bernanke’s dovish commentary, the Euro was trading at some of the highest levels in nearly a month.