British pound falls vs. dollar after BOE official warns of recession risk By MarketWatch TOKYO (MarketWatch) -- Strong words against a strong yen from Japanese Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda failed to prevent the Japanese unit from rising to fresh multiyear highs against its major rivals Tuesday. At a news conference at the ministry, Noda said that recent currency moves are clearly one-sided and that disorderly moves can be harmful to economic stability, according to reports. But Noda declined to comment on currency-market intervention, which some investors clearly took as a sign that Japan wasn't ready to back up strong words with direct market action. Japan hasn't intervened in currency markets in more than five years. It sold a massive 35 trillion yen in the 15 months through March 2004. Despite Noda's strong words against yen strength, the yen hit a 9-year high against the euro (EURYEN 106.7200, -0.9200, -0.8547%) of ¥106.35 on the EBS trading platform, and a 15-year high against the dollar (USDYEN 84.4500, -0.6600, -0.7755%) of ¥84.24. On Tuesday, the Nikkei Stock Average dropped 1.3% to below the 9,000 level, ending at 8995.14, its lowest close since May 2009. The strong yen hammered shares of exporters. Currency appreciation erodes exporters' overseas profits when they are repatriated and also makes their goods more expensive and less competitive in overseas markets. The president of the Tokyo Stock Exchange said Tuesday that the government must act to alleviate concerns over the strong yen, according to media reports. "Personally, I don't like the idea of foreign-exchange intervention, but the government needs to act to stop market jitters," Atsushi Saito said at a regular monthly news conference, according to Dow Jones Newswires. The euro was buying ¥108.18 in late North American trading Monday, and the dollar was buying ¥85.30. The dollar index (DXY 83.34, +0.22, +0.26%) , a measure of the U.S. unit against a basket of rival currencies, stood at 83.451, up from 83.117 late Monday. The euro (EURUSD 1.2636, -0.0012, -0.0949%) fell to $1.2607 from $1.2684. The British pound was under pressure after Martin Weale, a member of the Bank of England's rate-setting monetary policy committee, warned in a newspaper interview that Britain runs the risk of slipping back into recession. Weale, the newest member of the committee, told The Times of London that it would be "foolish" to rule out the possibility of a double-dip recession. The pound traded at $1.5396 versus the U.S. dollar, down 0.6% from Monday.

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