BackYen slips vs dollar as credit worries ease
Yen slips vs dollar as credit worries ease
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Rika Otsuka / Reuters
Tokyo: The yen slid against the dollar and euro on Friday, 24 August, extending this week’s sharp losses, as easing global credit concerns warmed up investor appetite for riskier assets.
But activity was subdued as few market players were willing to take fresh positions after another volatile week and ahead of a weekend.
News on Wednesday that Bank of America would invest $2 billion in troubled US mortgage lender Countrywide Financial soothed credit jitters and stabilised global equities markets.
“Calmer stock markets are helping the forex market to also calm down," said Hideki Hayashi, a global strategist at Shinko Securities.
The dollar this week staged a dramatic recovery, rebounding as much as 5% from a 14-month low of 111.60 yen struck on electronic trading platform EBS late last week.
The euro climbed as much as 7% this week from 149.25 yen hit last Friday, its lowest since early November.
On Friday, the dollar rose to 116.30 yen from 116.20 yen in the previous day’s late US trade.
The euro rose to 157.80 yen from around 157.60 yen in late New York.
The euro rose a tad to $1.3570 from $1.3560.
The Australian dollar rose 0.3% against the dollar to $0.8225 with some investors tentatively seeking riskier bets again after recent gyrations in global markets.
Against the Japanese currency, the Aussie was up 0.3% after soaring 2% in the previous session, its biggest one-day jump in more than three years.
The Nikkei share average dropped 0.5% but still up 6% this week.
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