| Yen Gains as European Officials May Say the Currency Is Weak
Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) -- The yen gained versus the dollar and increased the most against the euro in a month on speculation European policy makers will say Japan's currency is too weak. The yen climbed against the 16 most-active currencies after officials in Europe said the Group of Seven nations would debate the issue this week. Japan's Vice Finance Minister Hideto Fujii, the ministry's top bureaucrat, said the G-7 will discuss currency markets as usual. Futures trading data released on Feb. 2 showed investors held record bets the Japanese currency would fall. ``The yen has momentum coming into the G-7 meeting after all the talk about it being undervalued,'' said Mike Moran, senior currency strategist at Standard Chartered Bank in New York. ``Looking at the net shorts, you've got to wonder how long this can remain without some kind of a correction.'' The Japanese currency gained to 120.36 against the dollar at 11:30 a.m.
FOREX-Yen resumes slide as no action seen from G7
LONDON, Feb 7 (Reuters) - The yen retreated versus the euro and the dollar on Wednesday as investors grew more confident that this weekend's Group of Seven meeting would not yield a joint statement on the Japanese currency's weakness. The yen's slide of some 16 percent in the past three years to successive record lows against the euro has captured market attention, with European officials determined to take the issue up at the G7 meeting in Essen, Germany, on Feb. 9-10. But U.S. and Japanese officials have continued to play down the issue, leading many analysts to conclude that the yen will not be singled out for attention in the post-meeting statement. A senior official at Japan's Finance Ministry said on Wednesday that the yen could be discussed at the G7 but that it was unlikely to be the main subject of the talks.
NZ Dollar Gains; Jobless Figures May Support Rate Increase
Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- The New Zealand dollar rose on speculation figures today will show unemployment stayed near a record low last quarter, indicating the economy is growing fast enough to warrant an increase in interest rates. The jobless rate was probably unchanged at 3.8 percent in the fourth quarter, according to the median estimate of nine economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. The rate fell to 3.6 percent in the second quarter. Statistics New Zealand releases the employment figures at 10:45 a.m. in Wellington. High employment may stoke consumer spending, adding to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand's case to increase the official cash rate from a record 7.25 percent, or 2 percentage points more than the Federal Reserve's target at its next review in March.
Currencies: Paulson previews G-7 with comments on yen
NEW YORK: The yen declined against the euro and the dollar Tuesday after the U.S. Treasury secretary, Henry Paulson Jr., said that the Japanese currency was traded in "an open, competitive marketplace." The yen also dropped against the British pound, Australian dollar and Swiss franc as Paulson's comments cooled speculation that yen weakness would be singled out in a meeting this week of officials from the Group of Seven industrialized countries. His statement contrasted with those of European officials, who have said the yen was undervalued and Japanese interest rates were too low. "Paulson's comments indicated the U.S. won't pressure Japan to address the weak yen at the G-7," said Michael Malpede, a senior currency analyst at Man Global Research in Chicago. "That's reboosted the euro against the yen.
US Treasury secretary says Japan allows the yen's value to be set ...
WASHINGTON -- Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Tuesday that he was not concerned about the lows being set by the Japanese currency against the U.S. dollar because those values are being set in open markets. Paulson was pressed on the issue during congressional testimony by Rep. Sander Levin, who questioned why the Bush administration was not doing more to encourage the Japanese government to halt the slide in the yen against the dollar. American automakers believe that decline has given their Japanese competitors a tremendous price advantage. Levin, whose state has car manufacuting plantsd, said that European auto companies were complaining about the yen's decline against their currencies. He suggested that Paulson should join forces with European finance ministers to lobby Japanese officials on the issue when the countries meet for the Group of Seven finance ministers meeting in Essen, Germany this weekend.
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