On February 4, 2009 at Tokyo, the U.S. Dollar and the Japanese Yen saw some gains again, with investors anticipating a brighter market sentiment driven by stronger than expected housing data for the United States that had been released the previous day, which allowed caution to trickle back in.
In early trading in London, investors heavily sold the riskier Australian Dollar versus the Japanese Yen, dragging other Japanese Yen crosses down as well, with market players citing large number options-related activity.
Contributing to the Australian Dollars woes, a government rescue plan which would speed up cash payments from the multi-billion AUD stimulus package was in jeopardy today, as confusion in the Australian parliament threatened to delay the entire economic stimulus measures.
Today, by 09:10 GMT, the Dollar Index gained 0.2% to 85.190; the DXY tracks a basket of major currencies against the USD. The Australian dollar lost 1.7% against the U.S. currency and traded at $0.6414, which is largely attributed to the sharp drop in the Aussie Dollar against the Japanese Yen, the last quote was 57.13 Yen, down by 1.7% on the day.
The strength of the Japanese Yen pushed the Euro down by 0.7% to 115.52 Yen, while the U.S. Dollar eased by 0.2% to 89.05 Yen. Versus the U.S. Dollar, the Euro was down by .5% and traded at $1.2974, while Pound Sterling fell by 0.5% to $1.4389.