The dollar rose against the yen in Tokyo Monday, February 26, on intra-bank buying but gains were constrained as investors awaited data and events this week in the United States and Japan, dealers said. The greenback traded at 116.10-12 yen around 5:00 pm (0800 GMT), up from 115.79 yen in New York, but down from 116.82-85 yen in Tokyo late Friday.
"The dollar rose on technical buying, mainly through intra-bank trading," said Kiyoshi Kuzuhara, dealer at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi. “It posted modest gains as most investors took a wait-and-see stance" ahead of a series of US and Japanese economic events and statistics, he said. Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan will testify before the US Congress on Wednesday. US individual consumer spending data for January will be released on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) board members will hold a policy meeting on Wednesday after cutting their largely symbolic discount rate on February 9 for the first time since September 1995, from 0.5 percent to 0.35 percent. "The situation is likely to lead to further rate cuts in both US and Japan," Fuji Bank dealer Hideyuki Tsukamoto said. "Investors are waiting for figures which back up" the need for further rate cuts, Tsukamoto pointed out.
More investors sold the yen in late trading following news reports that a key ruling party official, Shizuka Kamei, was involved in a fresh bribery scandal, dealers said.
The euro meanwhile bought $0.9167-69 around 5:00 pm, down from $0.9185 in New York, but well up from $0.9065-68 in Tokyo late Friday. Against the yen, the euro was quoted at 106.43, down from 106.63 in New York, but up from 105.97 in Tokyo Friday afternoon. There were no fresh leads on the euro-dollar in Tokyo trading, said Kuzuhara.
"Investors sold the euro for profit-taking," Kuzuhara said. Research house IDEAglobal.com said: "Short-term euro sentiment remains fragile." "However, it is worth reflecting that even though the equity sell-off over recent days has been global, this is nevertheless a longer-term euro positive, since euroland economic growth is less sensitive to an equity sell-off than the other major economic blocs," the research house said. —(AFP)
© Agence France Presse 2000
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
