The yen broke recent trends and jumped against the dollar and the euro on Thursday after a slide in stocks sparked by a drop in Chinese factory activity prompted a rush for the safe-haven Japanese currency. China's factory activity shrank for the first time in seven months in May as new orders fell, a preliminary manufacturing survey showed, deepening fears that its economic recovery has stalled and a sharper cooldown may be imminent.
At the session peak, the yen rose more than 2 percent against the dollar and the euro. Both the greenback and the euro lost 1 percent against the Swiss franc, also seen as a safe haven. The yen hit a two-week high of 100.82 to the dollar, reversing a slide to a 4-1/2-year low of 103.73 yen on Wednesday after Bernanke told Congress the Fed could "in the next few meetings take a step down" in its bond buying.
The dollar was last at 101.63 yen, down 1.5 percent for the day, with the session's swing between the low of 100.82 yen and the peak of 103.56 yen. Some US $6.891 billion in yen changed hands on Thursday on Reuters Dealing, the highest daily volume since at least September. The euro slid to a two-week low of 129.94 yen, having touched a 3 1/2-year peak of 133.77 yen on Wednesday. It was last at 131.26 yen, down 1 percent. Against the dollar, the single currency was up 0.5 percent at $1.2915.
Comments
Comments are closed.