By: Barbara Zigah
Profit taking helped spur the Japanese Yen higher against a number of currencies in Asian trading today. As reported at 3:42 pm (JST) in Tokyo, versus the U.S. Dollar, the Japanese Yen traded at 90.40 Yen, an increase of .4%, continuing yesterday’s gains. Higher yielding currencies also lost ground against the low-yielding Yen; versus the Australian Dollar, the Yen hit on a 3-week peak of 80.85 Yen before retreating to 81.22 Yen and the New Zealand Dollar fared no better, falling .6% against the Yen, to trade at 65.00 Yen. The single currency Euro lost .2% to trade at 133.11 Yen, following yesterday’s 1.8% decline to the lowest point in 2-weeks, which was attributed to investor unwinding of their long Euro positions.
The U.S. Dollar also saw some broad gains in Asian trading yesterday, especially against higher-yielding currencies. The Australian Dollar slipped nearly 2% versus the greenback yesterday, the largest decline in 2-months while the New Zealand Dollar lost 3%, the largest single day drop in nearly 4 months. Earlier in the day, the New Zealand Reserve Bank governor indicated that no hike in the cash rate would be forthcoming, and the historical low rate of 2.5% would remain for at least until after the first half of 2010.
Japanese Yen Climbs Broadly on Profit Taking
After working on Wall Street, Barb began her second career as a freelance writer at Daily Forex, where the CEO recognized fresh, untapped potential and was willing to give her a try. She’s never looked back. Since then, she’s worked steadily as a freelance writer and editor in the financial services and Forex-related industry.