Yen Falls On Delayed BoJ Rate Hike Speculations

(RTTNews) - The Japanese yen weakened against other major currencies in the European session on Wednesday amid rising speculations that the Bank of Japan (BOJ) is likely to delay its rate hike.

Reports that Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi expressed concern about additional rate hikes during a meeting with the BoJ Governor Kazuo Ueda last week have further devalued the Japanese yen.

Additionally, investors had to lower their expectations for the rate of interest rate hikes when the government nominated two reflationists to the BoJ board.

European stocks traded at record highs after Anthropic announced new partnerships, helping ease artificial-intelligence disruption concerns.

The AI startup launched new updates to Claude Cowork that allow companies to integrate the productivity tool into a host of enterprise apps.

In economic news, data from the Bank of Japan showed that the producer prices in Japan were up 2.6 percent on year in January. That was in line with expectations and unchanged from the December reading.

On a monthly basis, producer prices slipped 0.5 percent following the flat reading in the previous month.

In the European trading today, the yen fell to more than 2-week lows of 184.46 against the euro and 211.48 against the pound, from early highs of 183.20 and 210.01, respectively. If the yen extends its downtrend, it is likely to find support around 187.00 against the euro and 215.00 against the pound.

Against the U.S. dollar and the Swiss franc, the yen slid to more than 2-week lows of 156.45 and 202.15 from early highs of 155.35 and 201.04, respectively. The yen may test support near 159.00 against the greenback and 203.00 against the franc.

Looking ahead, U.S. MBA mortgage approvals data, Canada wholesale sales for January and U.S. EIA crude oil data are slated for release in the New York session.