Yen in focus as FOREX Dollar under pressure and risk appetite improves

As reported by Reuters, the greenback battled against the yen on Thursday, having experienced a new three-month low for three straight days and heightening fears that Japan would act to weaken its currency. The dollar also lost its standing against commodity currencies and the euro as risk appetite improved after a series of Chinese manufacturing data related to Germany softened investors’ fears about market growth.

The greenback ended at 76.17 yen, having gone down as much as 76.00. This was close to its October 31 record low of 75.31 when Japan heavily intervened to push down the yen's strength. The euro went up to $1.3166 from a low of $1.3023 which lasted an entire week.

Also sustaining the currency was the news that the long-delayed deal between Greece and private creditors to cut the country’s debt burden will soon see a solution. All of this has pushed the greenback index to low of 78.623 in eight weeks. The dollar was last at 78.859, seeing support at 78.249 -- the 50% retracement of its rally from October to January.

Sebastien Galy, who is a strategist at Societe Generale PMIs, stated that China, Germany and the US are stronger than expected, which is encouraging heavy finance to intervene with a combination of loose monetary policies and PMIs above 50, which translates to buying risk.
Galy added that the monetary rush is gradually moving down the road of the financial system, pressuring the USD to go lower and the EM higher.