Forex Pros – The broadly stronger U.S. dollar was higher against the yen on Monday, pulling away from a seven-day low, boosted by safe haven demand ahead of a meeting of senior European Union officials to discuss the region’s sovereign debt crisis.
USD/JPY clawed back up from 80.52, the pair’s lowest since June 30, to hit 80.75 during late Asian trade, gaining 0.14%.
The pair was likely to find short-term support at 80.00, the low of June 22 and resistance at 81.41, last Thursday’s high.
On Sunday, European Union President Herman Van Rompuy called an emergency meeting of senior policy makers to discuss plans for a second bailout package for Greece and assess the risk of the sovereign debt crisis spreading from Greece to Italy.
The meeting was called after the cost of insuring Italian sovereign debt against default rose sharply on Friday.
The dollar fell sharply against the yen on Friday, after government data showed that U.S. nonfarm payrolls rose by just 18,000 in June, far below the 89,000 increase forecast by economists, with employers hiring the fewest workers in nine months. The unemployment rate unexpectedly rose 0.1% to 9.2%.
Meanwhile, the yen was higher against the euro, with EUR/JPY shedding 0.63% to hit 114.29.
Earlier Monday, Japan’s Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda said the yen’s recent rise against the dollar was not an “excessive” move warranting intervention in the currency market, adding that it was reflection of the slowdown in the U.S. economy.
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