The dollar and yen rose on Thursday amid revived safe-haven demand for the US and Japanese currencies following a pullback in risk appetite as illustrated by declines in equity and commodity markets. The dollar and commodities are often inversely correlated, with oil, gold and other raw materials priced in dollars and themselves seen as alternative currencies and hard assets.
Analysts said investors were turning cautious after recent economic data has not been as rosy as forecast, stoking worries that the sharp rally in riskier assets over the past several months may have been overdone.
The yen rallied broadly, hitting its highest level against the euro in more than two weeks, while the higher-yielding, commodity-linked Australian and New Zealand dollars tumbled. "It's probably a combination of the notion that the global economic data has been going through somewhat of a soft patch recently and the fact that the year-end is approaching," said Vassili Serebriakov, currency strategist at Wells Fargo in New York.
In late afternoon New York trade, the euro fell 0.3 percent to $1.4917. It remained within the range of a large $1.48 to $1.51 "double no touch" options structure expiring on Friday.
The euro-zone currency also slid to a more than two-week low against the yen as losses accelerated after breaking technical support at the 200-day moving average of around 132.00, according to Reuters data. The euro later rebounded to 132.78 yen, but was still down 0.7 percent for the day in volatile trading with a range of almost 2 yen separating the day's high and low.
A senior economic adviser to the German government told Reuters Television that Germany could face a double-dip recession in late 2010 or early 2011 as extra public spending is withdrawn. The dollar fell 0.4 percent to 89.02 yen after bottoming at 88.64 yen - its lowest level since October 9, according to Reuters data.
"The decline in risk appetite has prompted some squaring of positions particularly in the yen, which was oversold against the majors," said Michael Woolfolk, senior currency strategist at BNY Mellon in New York. All three major US stock indexes ended lower on Thursday with the tech-heavy Nasdaq sliding 1.66 percent.
Oil prices fell while gold eked out a gain on demand by investment funds after being lower for most of the session. Investors were also wary of talk from emerging market countries about capital controls to limit some of the flows of hot money into their economies, with new steps announced by Brazil and South Korea.
The ICE Futures US dollar index, a non-traded calculation measuring the greenback's performance against a basket of six currencies, rose 0.2 percent to 75.307. The index hit a 15-month low of 74.679 earlier this week. The Australian dollar fell to a two-week low and last traded 1.1 percent lower at US $0.9193. The New Zealand dollar lost 1.9 percent to US $0.7315.