Japan’s Yen, China’s yuan fall as US Fed considers rapid rate hikes

Rising US yields lifted the dollar to its seventh straight weekly gain on Friday against the yen and its greatest one-week climb against China’s yuan in more than two years.

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China is relaxing monetary policy, while Japan’s government bond rates are hovering around zero, and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell stated that a 50-basis-point rate hike is on the table at the Fed’s next meeting in two weeks.

Despite being more or less in line with market expectations, the statement brought five-year US rates over 3% for the first time since 2018 and halted a euro rally.

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Even if markets are starting to price in higher rates, with German two-year yields hitting an eight-year high overnight, the euro is not much above a two-year low.

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The yen is down 1.6% this week, trading at 128.44 to the dollar, slightly above the 20-year low of 129.43 set on Wednesday. At 100.61, the US dollar index remained over 100. The yuan has broken through its 200-day moving average this week, hitting a new seven-month low of 6.48 in early offshore trade.

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Concerns about the economic impact of China’s lockdowns have curbed recent advances in oil prices, and commodity currencies have been dragged down recently.

In morning trade, the Australian dollar had dropped 1% and was sitting around its 50-day moving average of $0.73. The New Zealand currency had fallen 1% overnight and was trading at $0.67 on Friday.

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Shunichi Suzuki, Japan’s finance minister, stated on Friday that recent yen declines were “sharp,” and his statement appeared to curb yen losses, despite the fact that he added that he didn’t express alarm about it in a meeting with US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

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In March, Japan’s core consumer prices grew at their sharpest rate in more than two years, boosting the possibility that officials could seek to strengthen the currency to alleviate households squeezed by rising energy and imported food expenses.