Yen Climbs To 6-day High Against Pound [GBP/JPY]
4/8/2008 5:06:50 AM In early European deals on Tuesday, the Japanese yen traded higher against its major counterparts and reached a 6-day high against the British pound. Against the euro and the franc, the yen recovered from a multi-month and 4-day lows during this time.
Japanese finance minister Fukushiro Nukaga expects to discuss the financial turbulence due to the U. S. sub prime problems and its impact on the global economy at the Group of Seven finance ministers and central bankers meeting, reports said today. The G7 finance officials meeting is scheduled later this week in Washington.
The minister wants to discuss the measures to stabilize the global economy and financial markets, but did not hint at any possible joint measures. Nukaga reportedly expressed hope that measures taken by each member nation would result in stability and recovery in the global economy and financial markets.
The Japanese Economy Watchers` current index that measures perceptions of business-cycle sensitive workers over the existing economic situations increased 3.3 points month-on-month to 36.9 in March from 33.6 in February, the Cabinet Office said today.
Another report from private credit research agency Teikoku Databank showed that the Japanese corporate bankruptcies increased 20.5% month-on-month to 1,127 cases in March.
The Japanese yen trended higher against the US currency in early deals on Tuesday and reached a high of 101.77 at about 4:10 am ET. The dollar-yen pair closed yesterday`s deals at 102.41.
The yen that closed yesterday`s deals at 160.90 against the euro reached a new multi-month low of 161.75, before gaining ground at about 8:15 pm ET. Currently, the yen is worth 160.60 per euro.
Against the British pound, the Japanese yen advanced to 6-day high during today`s deals. At about 4:15 am ET, the yen fetched 201.22 against the sterling, compared to 203.65 hit late yesterday in New York.
Apart from the yen, the pound declined against the other majors too as the house prices in the United Kingdom declined in March at the sharpest pace since September 1992. The House prices declined 2.5% on month in March compared with 0.4% fall in February. Economists had expected just 0.3% monthly fall.
The Japanese yen strengthened against the franc after hitting a 4-day low of 101.59 at about 8:50 pm ET. Currently, the franc-yen pair is trading at 101.09, compared to 101.11 hit late Monday in New York.
At about 4:15 am ET Tuesday, the Japanese yen advanced to a 6-day high of 100.11 against its Canadian counterpart. The yen closed yesterday`s deals at 101.00 against the loonie.
Against its Australian and New Zealand counterparts, the Japanese yen fetched 94.23 and 80.79 during today`s early deals. The Aussie-yen pair was worth 94.83 and the kiwi-yen pair was worth 81.53 at yesterday`s North American close.
Both business conditions and business confidence in Australia deteriorated to their lowest levels in years last month. The National Australia Bank survey of business conditions declined 4 points in March to a reading of 7 points, marking its lowest level since December 2002. NAB also said its accompanying business confidence index fell 2 points for the month, to a reading of minus-4, its lowest level since September 2001.