Yen weaker on stronger equities markets

Story link: Yen weaker on stronger equities markets

The Japanese yen weakened on Tuesday as gains in global equities markets sent investors looking for riskier investments, which meant that many were once again selling the yen to finance high-risk carry trades. The yen was lower against both the US dollar and the euro by the middle of the afternoon in New York, when it was 0.8 percent lower in relation to the greenback to ¥118.80 and down 0.9 percent against the euro, to ¥158.80. The Japanese currency was also lower against both the Australian and New Zealand dollars, losing 0.5 percent to the Aussie to ¥96.66 and dropping 0.8 percent to the New Zealand currency, to ¥85.62. The yen was also 0.8 percent down versus sterling, to ¥234.88.

The willingness by investors to accept more risk also meant declines for the Swiss franc, which was 0.2 percent lower to SFr1.2180 against the US dollar and down 0.3 percent to SFr1.6283 versus the euro.

Sterling strengthened then fell back ahead of the next meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England, which is due to issue another decision on interest rates on Thursday. While the expectation is that rates will remain unchanged, there has been a great deal of speculation that the Committee could surprise with a rate hike to 5.5 percent. In the end, the session saw no change for sterling against either the dollar or the euro, which held at $1.9780 and £0.6760 respectively.

The euro also remained unchanged at $1.3370 versus the US dollar. However the Indian rupee added 0.9 percent to Rs43.07 against the greenback after Friday’s rate hike, to 7.75 percent, issued by the Reserve Bank of India.