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Dollar steady, yen dips on month-end rebalancing

The dollar was little changed on Friday while the Japanese yen sank to its lowest since mid-November as investors rebalanced portfolios for month-end.

Bitcoin also jumped to a two-week high as a movement by retail investors to pile into certain stocks expanded to cryptocurrencies.

It was little changed against a basket of currencies on Friday at 90.57. The index is up 1.53% from a three-year low of 89.206 reached on Jan. 6.

Employment data for January released next Friday is the next major economic driver, while investors are also focused on fiscal stimulus.

The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives will move next week on President Joe Biden’s plan to deliver COVID-19 relief to Americans and businesses reeling from the pandemic, top Democrats said on Thursday.

The yen underperformed on Friday even as risk appetite worsened, hitting a two-month low versus the dollar and a nearly three-year low against the Swiss franc.

Analysts attributed the move to several factors, including the dollar’s yield advantage over the Japanese currency and month-end portfolio reshuffling.

Bank of Japan policymakers discussed the merits of allowing long-term yields to move more flexibly around the bank’s target, a summary of opinions at their January meeting showed on Friday.

The dollar was last up 0.50% at 104.73 yen. It earlier rose to 104.94.

Bitcoin was boosted after Tesla Inc chief Elon Musk tagged the cryptocurrency in his Twitter biography. Musk wrote simply ”#bitcoin” in his biography on the social media site.

It was last up at 2.2% at $34,300, after earlier reaching $31,990.

Reference: CNBC