The dollar soared to 10-week highs around ¥111.90 in late Tokyo trading Friday, as market sentiment turned “risk on.”
After scaling the highs, the dollar stood at ¥111.81-81 at 5 p.m., up from ¥110.75-76 at the same time Thursday. The euro was at $1.1371-1371, down from $1.1381-1381, and at ¥127.15-16, up from ¥126.05-06.
In foreign trading Thursday, the dollar took a sharp upturn following the release of strong U.S. economic data, including better-than-expected a gross domestic product for October-December last year.
The dollar added gains in Tokyo on Friday, sailing past ¥111.70 by around noon on a Tokyo stock rally, dollar buying by Japanese importers and brisk Chinese economic data, traders said.
In late trading, higher Chinese stock prices helped lift the U.S. currency to around ¥111.90, according to the traders.
“The dollar’s bullish momentum increased when the currency broke through a key technical line of ¥111.30,” a Japanese bank official said.
“The risk-on sentiment is strong on the back of the brisk performance of the benchmark Nikkei stock average,” an official of a major bank said.
But an official of a foreign exchange margin trading service firm said, “The dollar will need bigger buying incentives to go above ¥112.”
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