Dollar climbs to one-week high vs yen amid spike in Treasury yields

The dollar edged higher against its major peers on Wednesday, reaching a more than one-week top versus the yen, buoyed by higher Treasury yields as traders puzzled over the outlook for policy at the world’s biggest central banks, Reuters reported.

The U.S. currency ticked 0.13% higher to 133.685 yen in Asian trading, and earlier touched 133.95 for the first time since Dec. 20, when the Bank of Japan sent the pair spiralling lower with an unexpected loosening of the 10-year Japanese government bond yield policy band.

The greenback dropped as low as 130.58 yen that day for the first time since early August as traders speculated about an eventual end of BOJ stimulus.

A summary of opinions from the meeting, released Wednesday, showed policymakers discussed growing prospects the country could see higher wage growth and sustained inflation next year.

The dollar index, which measures the currency against six counterparts including the yen and euro, added 0.07% to 104.28 on Thursday, continuing its consolidation after sliding to the lowest since mid-June at 103.44 on Dec. 14, the day the Federal Reserve slowed interest rate hikes to a half-point pace.

Fed officials including Chair Jerome Powell though have stressed since then that the policy tightening will be prolonged, with a higher terminal rate, fueling worries of a U.S. slowdown.

The 10-year Treasury yield, which tends to be highly correlated to the dollar-yen pair, was at 3.843% in Tokyo, not far from the 1 1/2-month high of 3.862% reached overnight.