The dollar fell two thirds of a percent against the yen to within sight of seven-month lows and edged towards recent record lows against the euro on Friday as worries persisted about the US current account deficit. The dollar has lost as much as five percent against the yen and six percent against the euro since early October as markets fret the US will fail to attract sufficient investor flows to plug its huge current account gap.
Recent speculation in US and Japanese newspapers that the US administration will tolerate a weaker dollar was boosting Japan's currency on Friday, while verbal intervention from eurozone policymakers kept the euro in check.
"The dollar is drifting downwards. There is an inclination to sell dollars - the current account deficit is the underlying concern. We need to see a big upward surprise in today's US data to change the sentiment," said Daragh Maher, currency strategist at Calyon.
US retail sales data for October at 1330 GMT are forecast to show a rise of 0.2 percent, from a 1.5 percent gain in September.
The University of Michigan preliminary sentiment survey for November is due at 1445 GMT and forecast to show a rise to 93.0 from 91.7 in October.
The euro was at $1.2932 at 1230 GMT, up a quarter percent from late US trade, after hitting a record high of $1.3005 on Wednesday.
The dollar was at 84 against an index of currencies, a little above recent nine-year lows.
The dollar fell to 105.83 yen, just over half a yen away from seven-month lows.
In Japan, data showed the economy grew a real 0.1 percent in July-September from the previous quarter. That was below economists' forecasts for growth of 0.5 percent.
But the yen quickly reversed losses, finding support from a report in the Nikkei Financial Daily that Washington was set to accept a weaker dollar to cushion the economic impact from tighter monetary and fiscal policies and reduce the current account gap.The front-page article gave no sources for its conclusion but said the dollar would need to fall by up to 20-30 percent in order to halve the ratio of the US current account deficit to gross domestic product solely via currency policy.
Traders said there was also some talk of dollar sales against the yen ahead of US Treasury coupon repayments on Monday. Falling oil prices were also seen helping the yen, as Japan imports all of its oil.
"It's interesting the dollar moved more against the yen when we had yen negative data... A pullback in oil prices also helped the yen because it is one of the most sensitive currencies to a shift in oil prices," Maher said.
The euro was capped as a recent chorus of comments from European Central Bank policymakers helped the dollar's cause.
ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said on Thursday he stood by a statement he made on Monday in which he described recent euro/dollar movements as "brutal", while colleagues expressed concerns about the pace of the euro's recent gains.
Comments
Comments are closed.