The U.S. Dollar (CURRENCY:USD) appreciated further against the Japanese Yen (CURRENCY:JPY) (USDJPY) today as the latter lost glitter following comments from Japan’s Finance Minister, Taro Aso, who hinted at possible currency appreciation. Aso said that the regulators will arrest any further excessive upside in yen if it is likely to hurt Japanese economy.
Finance Minister signaled at intervention
The development came after the U.S. Treasury Department included Japan in its watch list to gauge if its foreign exchange policies give way to unfair trade advantage. USD/JPY (USDJPY) strengthened 0.67% to 109.06. However, the greenback lost momentum against a basket of other major currencies. EUR/USD (EURUSD) rose 0.04% to 1.1386 while GBP/USD (GBPUSD) was up 0.22% to 1.4439 during the late Asian trade.
Global markets add gains
Asian markets ditched their losing streak, reflecting the optimism in the global markets to close today’s session higher. Of all, Nikkei 225 (INDEXNIKKEI:NI225) added the most, rising 2.15% to 16,565.19 in response to yen’s weakness. Shanghai SE Composite Index reversed early day losses to settle slightly higher at 2,832.59, up by 0.02%.
Like Asian counterparts, the European equities appreciated for the second straight day. EURONEXT 100 (INDEXEURO:N100) and France’s CAC 40 (INDEXEURO:PX1) advanced 1.33% and 1.17% to 865.31 and 4,373,27 respectively. According to Hampstead Capital’s hedge fund manager, Lex Van Dam, European equities still offer attractive returns over cash and bonds after the European Central Bank adopted the low-interest rates.
iPath S&P GSCI Crude Oil Total Return (NYSEARCA:OIL) prices trimmed their early day losses as supply disruptions from Canada, caused due to wildfire, has outweighed the supply glut worries. Though Canadian operations are returning to normalcy, the market is still factoring in supply shutdown of several weeks as the producers are expected to take time in inspecting the pipeline and resume production. During early European hours, Brent Crude jumped 1.38% to $44.23, and West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil climbed 0.85% to $43.81 per barrel.
