The yen has climbed by more than 1% against the dollar as traders ramp up bets for more aggressive interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve in 2024, and on lingering speculation about the Bank of Japan’s exit from its negative interest rate policy.
The Japanese currency surged as much as 1.3% to ¥140.97 to the dollar, past the four-month high of ¥141.71 reached last week, as the Fed on Wednesday signaled a pivot to rate cuts and as investors look to the BOJ’s monetary policy meeting next week for any hints on the timing of its expected exit from the world’s last negative interest rate.
Remarks last week from BOJ Gov. Kazuo Ueda and one of his deputies had fueled speculation the central bank might end the negative rate this month. Such expectations subsided after people familiar with the matter said officials see little need to rush to scrap the policy this month.