LONDON—Fresh warnings from Japanese officials about the strength of the yen helped to push the dollar higher Tuesday.
By midmorning, the dollar was trading at 81.03 yen, down from a earlier high of 81.21 yen but above the level of 80.81 yen late Monday in New York. The euro fell to $1.3953 from $1.3970 but is up at 113.08 yen from 112.86 yen.
Despite last weekend's G-20 accord calling for members to refrain from currency devaluation, leading Japanese officials, including Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda, made it clear that they are still willing to intervene to drive the yen lower. Mr. Noda warned that recent moves in the yen were "one-sided" and said that he will continue to carefully monitor these moves.
Although there was no sign of any central bank activity, the dollar was up sharply against the yen in early European trade.
The euro, meanwhile, got some support from comments from Axel Weber, the leading contender for the presidency of the European Central Bank later this year. He called for foreign-exchange rates to be freely determined and showed no concern about the recent strength of the euro.
Elsewhere, the pound rose following better-than-expected U.K. growth data. Third quarter GDP growth amounted to 0.8% against expectations of a 0.4% rise. This should reduce speculation that the Bank of England will need to ease monetary policy any further. The pound rose to day highs against the dollar and euro after the data was released. The pound rose to $1.5852 from $1.5733.
Elsewhere, the Swedish krona was knocked sharply lower as the Swedish central bank hiked rates by 0.25 percentage point as expected, but took a more dovish stance on future rate increases. The euro rose 9.2586 kronor from 9.1961 kronor.
