CURRENCIES: Dollar Weakens Vs. Yen After BOJ Stands Pat On Monetary Policy
October 07 2015 - 4:37PM
Dow Jones News
By Joseph Adinolfi, MarketWatch , Hiroyuki Kachi
Investors look ahead to minutes from Fed's September meeting,
expected Thursday
The dollar strengthened against the yen Wednesday after the Bank
of Japan left its program of asset purchases unchanged at the close
of its two-day policy meeting.
The buck is on track to decline against the Japanese currency
for a second straight day.
The yen surged after the central bank's decision, briefly
driving the dollar to its lowest level in nearly a week. The dollar
recently bought Yen119.98 late Wednesday in New York, down 0.2%
from Yen120.26 late Tuesday in New York.
Most market strategists said an expansion of its Yen80
trillion-a-year ($67 billion) program of asset purchases was
unlikely on Wednesday, but some believe the central bank will act
at its next meeting on Oct. 30.
The dollar was broadly weaker Tuesday, with a few exceptions. It
strengthened against the euro , with the shared currency declining
to $1.1244 late Wednesday, down 0.2% from $1.1268 late Tuesday. The
buck also traded higher against the Swiss franc and Swedish krona
.
But the buck depreciated against its emerging-markets rivals for
a second straight day -- on track to decline against the Mexican
peso , Brazilian real , Turkish lira and South African rand for the
ninth session in the last 10.
The Malaysian ringgit and Indonesian rupiah soared against the
dollar, supported by a monthly update on China's foreign currency
reserves which showed the central bank spent less supporting the
yuan in September.
Read:Indonesian rupiah rises to 6-week high on China data
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/indonesian-rupiah-rises-to-6-week-high-on-china-data-2015-10-07)
Read: China will be able to support the yuan for a long, long
time
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/china-will-be-able-to-support-the-yuan-for-a-long-time-2015-10-07)
It also weakened against the British pound , as well as the New
Zealand Australian dollars .
Overall, the dollar has been range bound since the Federal
Reserve's decision to leave interest rates unchanged in September
as investors try to suss out whether the Federal Reserve will raise
interest rates in 2015.
Read: Why the TPP is better off without currency manipulation
protection
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-the-tpp-is-better-off-without-currency-manipulation-protection-2015-10-06)
"For so long now, I'd even say since before the start of the
year, we've priced in dollar recovery, but then doubt starts
creeping in," said Neil Mellor, a currency strategist at BNY
Mellon. "The dollar is just waiting for that starting pistol to go
off. And at some point, it will."
The ICE U.S. Dollar index , a measure of the bucks's strength
against a basket of six currencies, rose 0.1% to 95.5240.
Investors are now looking ahead to the release of minutes from
the Federal Reserve's September meeting, hoping they will provide
some insight into the central bank's plan for raising interest
rates.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 07, 2015 16:22 ET (20:22 GMT)
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