LONDON (Reuters) – The yen fell against the dollar, reversing direction after a sudden surge yesterday, which traders and analysts immediately attributed to intervention by Japanese authorities in the foreign exchange market.
Just before 10.30am the yen lost 0.6% to 155.34 per dollar, eroding around half of yesterday’s jump, when in the space of just thirty minutes it went from a level around 157.55 to 153 .
Yesterday’s sharp movement occurred in a period of calm for the markets, with Wall Street already closed and a few hours after the conclusion of the Federal Reserve meeting.
Japanese Deputy Finance Minister for International Affairs Masato Kanda, who oversees currency policy, told Reuters he had no comment on whether authorities would intervene in the market.
The dollar index, which measures the currency against six major counterparts, was down 0.03% at 105.727.
The euro is down slightly at $1.0707, after rising 0.5% in the previous session.
The pound lost 0.1% to $1.2512.
As widely expected, the Federal Reserve kept rates unchanged yesterday and Chairman Jerome Powell stressed that “it will take longer than previously expected” for the central bank to feel confident that inflation will return to the 2% target . At the same time, he defined the risk of further increases as “unlikely”.
10.23am
CHANGE RIC BID ASK CLOSURE
EURO/DOLLAR EUR= 1.0707 1.0709 1.0709
DOLLAR/YEN JPY= 155.34 155.38 154.47
EURO/YEN EURJPY= 166.34 166.36 165.53
EURO/STERLING EURGBP= 0.8555 0.8558 0.8553
SPOT GOLD XAU= 2,307.9 2,308.3 2,317.7
NAME INDEX RECORD VALUE VAR. % CLOSURE
DOLLAR INDEX .DXY 105.727 -0.03 105.755
(Translated by Camilla Borri, editing A)
