PHOTO
(Updates prices, adds comments)
* Dollar/yen slips following comments from BOJ's Kuroda
* Market may have been awaiting clearer easing hint -trader
* US jobs data doesn't rule out nor boost Fed rate hike hopes
By Masayuki Kitano
SINGAPORE, Sept 5 (Reuters) - The dollar sagged against the yen on Monday after Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda disappointed some investors who were looking for clearer hints on the chances of more BOJ easing this month.
The dollar, which stood near 104.00 yen ahead of Kuroda's comments, fell to 103.52 yen at one point and was last trading at 103.64 yen
JPY=
, down 0.3 percent on the day.
The greenback had set a five-week high of 104.32 yen on Friday, after disappointing U.S. job figures did little to change investors' perception that the Federal Reserve is likely to raise interest rates in coming months.
The dollar has since pulled away from that peak as views grow that a September hike is less likely than one in December.
Kuroda signalled his readiness to ease monetary policy further using existing or new tools, shrugging off growing market concerns that the bank is reaching its limits after an already massive stimulus programme.
He also stressed the BOJ's comprehensive assessment of its policies later this month won't lead to a withdrawal of easing.
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The yen rose, however, as his comments disappointed some who were looking for more explicit hints on the chances of the BOJ aggressively easing policy at its next review on Sept. 20-21, traders said.
"There were probably some hopes for something a little more specific," said Shinsuke Sato, head of FX trading group for Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation in Tokyo.
While the dollar could retreat further against the yen for now, the greenback will probably hold firm ahead of the Fed's policy meeting this month and its downside is fairly limited, helped by potential unwinding of yen-bullish bets, Sato said.
Data from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission released on Friday showed that currency speculators were net long the yen in the week ended Aug. 30.
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The dollar's index against a basket of six major currencies
.DXY
=USD
stood at 95.721
.DXY
, managing to stay above a one-week low of 95.189 set on Friday just after the U.S. payrolls data.
Nonfarm payrolls rose by 151,000 jobs last month, the U.S. Labor Department reported on Friday, below the 180,000 jobs that economists had expected.
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Yet, with the average payroll increase over the last three months handily topping 200,000, investors concluded that the data would not be a serious blow to the Fed's plan to raise interest rates.
"The market's reaction is perfectly understandable. While the headline figure was weak, the data did not completely rule out the possibility of a rate hike in September," said Masashi Murata, senior currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman.
The euro
EUR=
edged up 0.1 percent to $1.1167, but was not very far from Wednesday's three-week low of $1.1123.
There was limited reaction to the defeat of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats in a local election on Sunday.
CDU were beaten into third place after not only Social Democrats but also the anti-immigrant and anti-Islam Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in an election in her home district of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
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The defeat, coupled with another drubbing that looms in two weeks in Berlin, is casting an ominous shadow over the Chancellor's hopes of winning - or even running - for a fourth term in 2017.
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"In the long run, this could become a really big story, towards the German general election next year. If there are fears that countries like Germany and France want to exit the euro, talk of euro zone break-up may be rehashed for instance," Junya Tanase, chief currency strategist at JPMorgan Chase Bank.
A two-day summit of leaders from G20 nations that began on Sunday in China has so far produced little in the way of market-moving headlines. U.S. president Barack Obama described his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping as "extremely productive".
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(Reporting by Masayuki Kitano and Hideyuki Sano in TOKYO; Editing by Kim Coghill) ((masayuki.kitano@thomsonreuters.com; +65-6417-4682; Reuters Messaging: masayuki.kitano.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
* Dollar/yen slips following comments from BOJ's Kuroda
* Market may have been awaiting clearer easing hint -trader
* US jobs data doesn't rule out nor boost Fed rate hike hopes
By Masayuki Kitano
SINGAPORE, Sept 5 (Reuters) - The dollar sagged against the yen on Monday after Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda disappointed some investors who were looking for clearer hints on the chances of more BOJ easing this month.
The dollar, which stood near 104.00 yen ahead of Kuroda's comments, fell to 103.52 yen at one point and was last trading at 103.64 yen
The greenback had set a five-week high of 104.32 yen on Friday, after disappointing U.S. job figures did little to change investors' perception that the Federal Reserve is likely to raise interest rates in coming months.
The dollar has since pulled away from that peak as views grow that a September hike is less likely than one in December.
Kuroda signalled his readiness to ease monetary policy further using existing or new tools, shrugging off growing market concerns that the bank is reaching its limits after an already massive stimulus programme.
He also stressed the BOJ's comprehensive assessment of its policies later this month won't lead to a withdrawal of easing.
The yen rose, however, as his comments disappointed some who were looking for more explicit hints on the chances of the BOJ aggressively easing policy at its next review on Sept. 20-21, traders said.
"There were probably some hopes for something a little more specific," said Shinsuke Sato, head of FX trading group for Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation in Tokyo.
While the dollar could retreat further against the yen for now, the greenback will probably hold firm ahead of the Fed's policy meeting this month and its downside is fairly limited, helped by potential unwinding of yen-bullish bets, Sato said.
Data from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission released on Friday showed that currency speculators were net long the yen in the week ended Aug. 30.
The dollar's index against a basket of six major currencies
Nonfarm payrolls rose by 151,000 jobs last month, the U.S. Labor Department reported on Friday, below the 180,000 jobs that economists had expected.
Yet, with the average payroll increase over the last three months handily topping 200,000, investors concluded that the data would not be a serious blow to the Fed's plan to raise interest rates.
"The market's reaction is perfectly understandable. While the headline figure was weak, the data did not completely rule out the possibility of a rate hike in September," said Masashi Murata, senior currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman.
The euro
There was limited reaction to the defeat of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats in a local election on Sunday.
CDU were beaten into third place after not only Social Democrats but also the anti-immigrant and anti-Islam Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in an election in her home district of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
The defeat, coupled with another drubbing that looms in two weeks in Berlin, is casting an ominous shadow over the Chancellor's hopes of winning - or even running - for a fourth term in 2017.
"In the long run, this could become a really big story, towards the German general election next year. If there are fears that countries like Germany and France want to exit the euro, talk of euro zone break-up may be rehashed for instance," Junya Tanase, chief currency strategist at JPMorgan Chase Bank.
A two-day summit of leaders from G20 nations that began on Sunday in China has so far produced little in the way of market-moving headlines. U.S. president Barack Obama described his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping as "extremely productive".
(Reporting by Masayuki Kitano and Hideyuki Sano in TOKYO; Editing by Kim Coghill) ((masayuki.kitano@thomsonreuters.com; +65-6417-4682; Reuters Messaging: masayuki.kitano.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
