USD/JPY hits fresh 6-year highs on U.S. rate hike hopes The U.S. dollar rose to fresh six-year highs against the yen on Friday, as expectations for a sooner than expected U.S. rate hike continued to boost demand for the greenback. Forex - USD/JPY hits fresh 6-year highs on U.S. rate hike hopesDollar continued to climb vs. yen on Fed speculation USD/JPY hit 107.40 during late Asian trade, the pairs highest since September 2008; the pair subsequently consolidated at 107.24, adding 0.14%. The pair was likely to find support at 106.62, Thursdays low and resistance around the 108.00 level. Expectations that the Federal Reserve is growing closer to raising interest rates continued to boost the dollar against the yen, as the Bank of Japan looks likely to stick to a looser monetary policy stance. A study by the San Francisco Fed published on Monday indicated that central bank officials see rates rising sooner than markets expect. The Fed was expected to cut its asset purchase program by another $10 billion at its upcoming policy meeting next week which would keep it on track for winding up the program in October, and to start raising interest rates sometime in mid-2015. The yen also remained under pressure after BoJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said on Thursday that the bank would be prepared to immediately loosen monetary policy or implement other measures if its 2% inflation target becomes difficult to meet. Earlier this week official data showed that Japan’s second quarter economic contraction was larger than initially estimated, and another report showed that the country’s current account surplus fell short of expectations in July. The yen was lower against the euro, with EUR/JPY edging up 0.13% to 138.60. Later in the day, the U.S. was to release data on retail sales, as well as closely watched preliminary data on consumer sentiment.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 07:27:55 +0000