The yen rose against all of its 16 major counterparts, marking the first broad-based move this year, as increased concern of slowing economic growth spurred investor appetite for safe assets.
The Japanese currency appreciated against the tenders of commodity-exporting countries, led by South Africa’s rand, after a private report showed manufacturing may shrink in China for a fifth month. A similar report in Europe helped spur a drop in the euro against the yen.
“The general risk-off tone that was popular throughout the week” supported the yen, said Joe Manimbo, a market analyst in Washington at Western Union Business Solutions.
“For the first time in months, Japan managed a trade surplus and that suggests that maybe the Japanese economy is in better shape than some had feared,” Manimbo said.
The yen rose 1.3 percent to ￥82.35 per US dollar this week in New York in its biggest such gain since the final week of last year. The rand fell 2.9 percent to ￥10.7234. The euro strengthened 0.6 percent to ￥109.27 and added 0.7 percent to US$1.3270.
The yen breached its 21-day moving average against the euro of ￥108.61, which will lead to further yen appreciation, with support between ￥105.43 and ￥106.8, MacNeil Curry, head of foreign-exchange and interest-rates technical strategy at Bank of America Corp in New York, wrote in a note.
The pound strengthened against most of its 16 major peers tracked by Bloomberg after UK data showed inflation slowed less than economist estimates last month. Consumer prices rose 3.4 percent from a year earlier, compared with the 3.3 percent median estimate of 36 economists in a Bloomberg survey.
Sterling advanced 0.2 percent to US$1.5869.
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