Safe haven currencies were a hot commodity in the FX space after North Korea fired yet another missile, this time into the Pacific Ocean through Japanese airspace. As a result, the Swiss Franc and Japanese Yen both edged higher against the US Dollar. Paradoxically, though the North Korean missile over Japan was a cause for worry in that island nation, the Yen remains a popular safe haven currency. That is largely because investors believe foreign countries will repatriate funds into Japan to a greater degree than those who will sell the Yen.
As reported at 10:42 am (JST) in Tokyo, the USD/JPY was trading at 110.175 Yen, down 0.04%, off the session trough of 109.539 Yen. The USD/CHF edged higher and was trading at 0.9634 Swiss Francs, a gain of 0.01%; the pair had earlier hit a low of 0.96080 Swiss Francs.
US Inflation Data Fails to Excite Investors
In the US, despite better than expected inflation figures, US Dollar investors had little enthusiasm for the currency. CPI and Core CPI numbers for August both beat expectations; CPI rose to 1.9% from 1.7% while Core CPI rose to 1.7% against an expected fall to 1.6%. The release later today of Retail Sales data for August could help gauge sentiment among the Federal Reserve’s voting committee. Analysts are still on the fence on the timing of a rate hike, with many putting the next one well into 2018, especially given the recent lackluster economic data.