The safe-haven Japanese yen dipped slightly versus the dollar on Friday, reversing previous gains, but was still up for the week as a succession of events in the Ukraine-Russia crisis heightened investor anxiety. The dollar rose 0.1% to 115.025 yen in midday New York trade. The dollar fell 0.4% versus the Japanese yen this week, its greatest weekly percentage drop in over a month. The dollar was up 0.1% against the Swiss franc, another haven currency, at 0.9212 francs.
Fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine have also bolstered demand for safe-haven assets, with Treasury rates falling on Friday. On Friday, Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine announced they planned to evacuate the population of their breakaway zone to Russia, while US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the actions in the border area over the previous two days are part of a Russian strategy to provoke false provocations.
Market on Edge
Investors were relieved to learn late Thursday that Blinken had accepted an offer to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov late next week”Everyone’s attention is drawn to the crisis in Ukraine. There is a great deal of trepidation. Everyone is expecting a de-escalation, but it does not appear that this is the case “a senior market analyst at Oanda in New York, Edward Moya. “The trade has been about safe-havens, and the Japanese yen has had a fantastic week. The yen is a little weaker today, but the main issue is that we’re approaching the long weekend, and there’s still a lot of vitriol coming out of Russia “he stated
At 77.40 per dollar, the Russian rouble fell 1.26% against the US dollar. The euro was trading at $1.1329 versus the dollar, down 0.3%, while the US dollar index was up 0.3%. Bitcoin recently traded at $40,025, down 1.3%.
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