Friday, as some participants bought back the greenback to firm positions before the meeting of central bankers in Wyoming, the United States dollar edges slightly versus its Japanese counterpart. The greenback was an inch higher against the safe-haven yen and traded at 109.640 yen JPY=, this is after gaining 0.5% overnight.
In addition, the United States dollar was confident to end 0.3% stronger against the safe-haven yen on the week, in which during the week the greenback had plunges to as low as 108.635 yen on geopolitical tensions coming from the Korean Peninsula. As for the time being, given the sudden change of events, investors are now focused to the political turmoil in Washington to monetary policy from the geopolitics tension in the Korean Peninsula.
In accordance to this, the United States dollar was 0.05% higher against the euro which traded at $1.1796 EUR=, along with a passive overnight session, in which during the session the euro was bound to a tight $1.1818 – 1.1784 range. As what analysts have predicted, the greenback was on track to end the week with a 0.3% gain.
The dollar’s slight improvement—according to Yukio Ishizuki, senior currency strategist at Daiwa Securities, was caused by a precaution in which some speculators seemed to have bought back the greenback ahead of the Jackson Hole meeting, thus, resulting in the greenback/yen’s increase.