Increased demand for emergency liquidity amid the coronavirus crisis helped the dollar briefly top ¥108 in Tokyo trading Thursday.
At 5 p.m., the dollar stood at ¥107.81-82, up from ¥107.36-36 at the same time Wednesday. The euro was at $1.0872-0873, down from $1.0929-0929, and at ¥117.23-23, down from ¥117.34-34.
Following a dip below ¥107.40 in the early morning, the dollar attracted buybacks and real demand-backed purchases, breaching the ¥108 line in the early afternoon, traders said.
“A further crude oil price drop triggered dollar-buying,” said an official at a foreign-exchange trading firm.
When crude oil prices drop, investors in high-yielding bonds issued by U.S. shale oil firms tend to move to secure dollar funds for fear of those firms going bust, the official noted.
A Japanese bank official said the dollar is unlikely to keep rising against the yen, because the Japanese currency has been drawing safe-haven buying against other currencies as well.
