The yen rose against major currencies on Friday as concerns about the upcoming French elections and the lack of movement in fiscal changes in the United States kindled safe-haven demand for the Japanese currency. The dollar improved versus most peers with the exception of the yen, leaving it little changed on the week following mildly hawkish view from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and surprising strong US data on retail sales and consumer prices.
"We are trading in this political policy vacuum," Mazen Issa, senior FX strategist at TD Securities in New York, said of the dollar. "We are going to see things whipsaw around." Weaker stock prices around the globe, together with a three-day US holiday weekend, further fed appetite for the yen, bonds and other less risky assets. The yen was up 0.3 percent against the dollar at 112.81 yen and was 0.8 percent higher versus the euro at 119.87 yen.
In the wake of this political development, the euro fell 0.5 percent against the dollar at $1.0623, holding above a five-week low of $1.0520 struck on Wednesday. The euro's weakness helped stabilize the dollar as traders had pared bullish bets on the greenback earlier this week on reduced expectations the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates at its March 14-15 policy meeting. The dollar index was last up 0.4 percent at 100.82, reversing Thursday's 0.7 percent drop that was its steepest one-day loss in over two weeks.
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