Yen Gains on Speculation Exporters Buying After Weekly Loss

[Enivid]

The yen rose against the dollar on speculation yesterday’s biggest drop in seven weeks encouraged local exporters to bring home some of their overseas earnings.

The dollar weakened on concern a government report today will show the U.S. jobless rate climbed to a 16-year high in January, adding to signs the recession is deepening in the world’s largest economy. Japan’s currency also strengthened versus the euro before a German report that may show industrial production fell for a fourth month, backing the case for the European Central Bank to cut interest rates further.

“Exporters came in to buy the yen as it reached attractive levels for them,” said Yuji Saito, head of the foreign-exchange group in Tokyo at Societe Generale SA, France’s third-largest bank by market value. “They were waiting for the yen to tumble to levels unseen by them in a while to purchase it.”

Japan’s currency advanced to 90.89 against the dollar as of 7:35 a.m. in London from 91.23 late yesterday in New York, when it fell 2 percent, the biggest drop since Dec. 18. The yen climbed to 116.01 per euro from 116.63. The currency is still headed for a second weekly loss versus the dollar and the euro.

The dollar traded at $1.2758 per euro from $1.2790 in New York yesterday. The pound rose to $1.4678 from $1.4610, and strengthened to 86.94 pence per euro from 87.55 pence.

Futures on Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of U.S. shares declined 0.4 percent, while the MSCI Asia-Pacific Index of regional shares rose 0.9 percent.

From Bloomberg News.

[FXexpert]

Japan's export based economy has really been hit hard by the international economic situation because their revenue relies so heavily on international consumers.