Yen Rises Amid Risk Aversion

(RTTNews) - The Japanese yen strengthened against other major currencies in the early European session on Monday amid risk aversion, as investors turn cautious ahead of a busy week of central bank meetings in the United States, Britain and Japan.

The highly anticipated Federal Reserve interest-rate decision is due on Wednesday, with no change expected.

Traders expect the Bank of Japan to tweak its yield curve control policy when it wraps up a two-day policy meeting on Tuesday.

The Bank of England is to hold its penultimate meeting of the year on Thursday, with economists anticipating a 'status quo policy update.'

Meanwhile, Israel stepped up ground attacks on Hamas targets in Gaza but held back from a full-on incursion, helping ease fears of a wider Middle East conflict involving regional superpower Iran and its proxies in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq.

In the European trading now, the yen rose to nearly a 4-week high of 180.80 against the pound and a 2-week high of 165.40 against the Swiss franc, from early lows of 181.43 and 165.93, respectively. If the yen extends its uptrend, it is likely to find resistance around 178.00 against the pound and 160.00 against the franc.

Against the euro and the U.S. dollar, the yen advanced to near 2-week highs of 157.71 and 149.28 from early lows of 158.24 and 149.82, respectively. The yen may test resistance around 155.00 against the euro and 147.00 against the greenback.

Looking ahead, Germany's GDP data for the third quarter, the Bank of England's money and credit data for September, Eurozone economic sentiment survey results for October are due to be released in the European session.

In the New York session, U.S. Dallas Fed manufacturing index for October is slated for release.

At 9:00 am ET, preliminary inflation data is due from Germany. Consumer price inflation is forecast to ease to 4.0 percent in October from 4.5 percent in September.