Japanese yen benefits from its safe haven status

Elsewhere, the overall theme seen this week has been a shift away from higher risk currencies for which we saw a demand last week with the Japanese yen being buoyed by demand for safe-haven currency. Strong demand for the Japanese currency continued yesterday. Conversely, we saw the commodity-backed currencies perform badly, as nervous market sentiment meant traders bought out of the higher yielding assets. Throughout the week we saw the Australian and New Zealand dollars perform badly; the New Zealand dollar perform particularly badly on Wednesday, losing out against all of its 16 major trading partners following the statement from the Fonterra Group (New Zealand’s biggest company and the largest dairy export in the world) warning earnings could fall sharply for the second half of the year. A quiet day on the data front today, with inflation data out of Japan being the only release of note. Get in touch for a live rate.