The Japanese yen was among the strongest currencies during the past trading week as rising risk aversion encouraged traders to stick to safer assets and to avoid riskier ones.
The main theme during the week was North Korea as tensions between the country and the United States (and their allies) were escalating. The souring relationships between the USA and Russia did not help the investors’ mood either. The yen tends to benefit from fear and uncertainty, and that was definitely the case during this week.
The US dollar is also considered to be a safe currency, but this time it underperformed compared to the yen as the US willingness to get involved in conflicts was not encouraging investors to buy dollars. Additionally, US President Donald Trump hurt the currency by saying that it is too strong.
USD/JPY plummeted 2.3% from 111.05 to 108.54 — the lowest weekly close since November. EUR/JPY slumped 1.6% from 11.7.58 to 115.70 — also the weakest close since November. GBP/JPY declined from 137.51 to 135.89.
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