The US dollar climbed to a four-month high against the yen and advanced versus the euro on speculation that reports this week will signal US growth is accelerating while the economies of Germany and Japan struggle to expand.
The US currency also advanced versus the British pound and Swiss franc as economists forecast employers added more than 200,000 jobs for the second straight month in March. Separate releases may show Japanese factory production declined and German unemployment rose to a postwar high.
"The dollar still has much more room to gain," said Yusuke Fujisawa, who invests in overseas debt at Dai-Ichi Kangyo Asset Management in Tokyo, which handles the equivalent of US$17 billion.
"This week's data will come as a reminder that the US economy is by far the strongest compared with those of Japan and Europe," he said.
Against the yen,the dollar rose to 106.98 as of 4:10pm in Tokyo from 106.40 late Friday in New York, according to EBS, an electronic foreign-exchange dealing system. The US currency was as strong as 107.15, the most since Nov. 10 last year. The dollar climbed to a six-week high of $US1.2908 against the euro.
Fujisawa said he may consider increasing his holdings of US dollar-denominated debt. The US dollar may gain to ?108 and US$1.27 per euro in a month, Fujisawa said.
Traders and investors were the most bullish on the dollar versus the euro in 17 months in a Bloomberg News survey, as the US currency headed for its best quarter since 2001.
The US dollar is being buoyed by expectations the US economic expansion will outpace that of the euro region for a fourth consecutive year and speculation the Federal Reserve will abandon its policy of increasing interest rates gradually.
"The [US] dollar will appreciate further," said Toru Umemoto, a market analyst in Tokyo at Keio University's Global Security Research Center, an organization headed by Eisuke Sakakibara, Japan's former vice finance minister.
"The Fed is going to accelerate its tightening," Umemoto said.
Sixty-four percent of those polled from Sydney to New York on March 24 advised buying the US dollar against the euro, up from 43 percent a week ago.
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