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Sep 24, 2024 | 
asia.nikkei.com | Miki Kamiyama
TOKYO -- Market players are sharply divided on the yen's outlook for the rest of year, as uncertainties over monetary policy and the political situation in the U.S. and Japan fuel volatility in exchange rates. "We're still digesting key events last week in Japanese and U.S. monetary policy," said Kazushige Kaida at State Street Bank in Tokyo. The yen touched the 144 range to the dollar on Tuesday in Tokyo, weakening from a more-than-one-year high of 139.50 over a single week.
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Sep 9, 2024 | 
asia.nikkei.com | Miki Kamiyama |Akira Inujima
TOKYO -- Investors in Japan bought a record amount of overseas bonds in August, the latest data from the Finance Ministry shows, as a stronger yen prompted pension funds and other players to rebalance their portfolios. The purchases totaled a net 7.34 trillion yen ($51.3 billion) for the month, topping the previous record of 5.45 trillion yen from July 2016.
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Jul 20, 2024 | 
asia.nikkei.com | Miki Kamiyama
TOKYO -- Speculative short positions in the yen, which had swelled to their second-highest level, have begun to drop as Japan's suspected yen-buying intervention this month caught the market off guard. As of Tuesday, yen short positions held by market players such as hedge funds totaled a net 151,072 contracts, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission reported Friday, a drop of 30,961 contracts from the previous week.
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Jun 19, 2024 | 
asia.nikkei.com | Miki Kamiyama |Genki Ikuta
TOKYO -- Currency interventions by Japanese authorities appear to be having little effect on the yen's weakness against non-U.S. currencies, as carry trades drive the yen to historic lows against the Swiss franc, British pound and more. The market's response to the Bank of Japan's caution at its policy meeting last week is "fueling selling pressure on the yen," said Takumi Naya at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking.
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May 10, 2024 | 
asia.nikkei.com | Takahisa Tamura |Konatsu Ochi |Miki Kamiyama
TOKYO -- Japanese individual investors have emerged as a new factor in the yen's persistent slide, complicating any attempts by authorities to support the currency. The yen weakened by 1.7% against the dollar in the week through Friday -- by far the worst performance among nine major advanced-economy currencies.
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Mar 7, 2024 | 
asia.nikkei.com | Miki Kamiyama |Yasuha Minami |Ryo Saeki
TOKYO -- Japanese markets are on edge amid mounting speculation that the Bank of Japan will end its negative interest rate policy this month. Japan's currency strengthened to the 147 yen level against the dollar Thursday for the first time in about a month. Shares in exchange-rate-sensitive exporters sold off, with the Nikkei Stock Average falling nearly 500 points.
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Feb 16, 2024 | 
asia.nikkei.com | Miki Kamiyama
TOKYO -- The Mexican peso on Friday touched its strongest level against the yen since October 2008, fueled by a rise in oil prices and high interest rates. The Mexican currency is trading in the low 8.8 yen range.
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Feb 6, 2024 | 
asia.nikkei.com | Takahisa Tamura |Miki Kamiyama
TOKYO -- Investors, especially those outside Japan, see the Bank of Japan as increasingly likely to engage in additional rate hikes this year after it scraps its negative-rate policy, market indicators suggest, though early rate cuts in the U.S. could complicate the picture. The yield on newly issued two-year Japanese government bonds, which are sensitive to policy rate expectations, reached a three-month high of 0.11% on Monday and stayed around that level Tuesday.
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Jan 25, 2024 | 
asia.nikkei.com | Takahisa Tamura |Miki Kamiyama
TOKYO -- Currencies across the Asia-Pacific region have slipped to their weakest levels against the dollar in months, as the slowdown in China casts a shadow over countries holding strong economic and trade ties with Beijing. The Philippine peso, Indonesian rupiah and Malaysian ringgit were among those that reached a three-month low against the dollar on Wednesday. The Thai baht and Australian dollar are trading around their weakest in one to two months.
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Jan 24, 2024 | 
asia.nikkei.com | Takahisa Tamura |Miki Kamiyama
TOKYO -- Currencies across the Asia-Pacific region have slipped to their weakest levels against the dollar in months, as the slowdown in China casts a shadow over countries holding strong economic and trade ties with Beijing. The Philippine peso, Indonesian rupiah and Malaysian ringgit were among those that reached a three-month low against the dollar on Wednesday. The Thai baht and Australian dollar are trading around their weakest in one to two months.
