Yen up despite Marine Day holiday

Story link: Yen up despite Marine Day holiday

The yen was up on Monday, despite closed markets for the Japanese Marine Day holiday, while the US dollar and sterling were generally down.

The yen was helped by falling oil prices as Hurricane Emily lost strength as it crossed Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula was well as a seeming trend for investors to favor growth-oriented currencies such as the yen, the Australian dollar and the Canadian dollar.

The yen gained 0.4 percent to ¥111.75 in relation to the US dollar, while it rose 0.1 percent against the euro and was up 0.4 percent against sterling, to ¥195.74.

While the US dollar held steady against sterling at $1.7522, it lost 0.4 percent to $1.2069 in relation to the euro, which was helped by good economic news out of the eurozone.

The Australian dollar gained 0.7 percent to A$0.7539 in relation to the US dollar, and the Canadian dollar was up 0.5 percent to C$1.2140 against the greenback.

Also benefiting from the US dollar’s misfortunes was the Mexican peso, which gained 0.2 percent to trade at 10.587 pesos to the dollar, bringing its gains on the US currency to 6.6 percent since late March.

The Brazilian real was up 0.5 percent to R$2.3255 in relation to the dollar.

The real has gained 15.3 percent against the dollar since March. The dollar was not helped Monday by news that it had a portfolio inflow of $60 billion dollars in May, enough to cover the month’s trade deficit.

Meanwhile, sterling was weakened by the slowing housing market in the UK. The pound lost 0.6 percent to A$2.3236 in relation to the Australian dollar and was down 0.3 percent to £0.6887 against the euro.