The yen rose to a nine-week high versus the dollar after Japan’s Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano said the government won’t intervene The dollar declined the euro and weakened versus the yen on speculation the U.S. may lose its AAA credit rating. The yen rose to a nine-week high versus the dollar after Japan’s Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano said the government won’t intervene in the currency market and the Bank of Japan raised its economic assessment. “Dollar sentiment is particularly bad,” said Sean Callow, a senior foreign-exchange strategist in Sydney at Westpac Banking Corp., Australia’s biggest lender by market value. “A lot of Treasuries are held by foreign investors and any concern about the value of U.S. debt will have a massive impact” on the U.S. currency. The EUR/USD is currently trading at $1.3940 as of 8:49am, London Time. Sterling fell sharply across the board on Thursday after ratings agency Standard & Poor's lowered its outlook on Britain to negative. This was really unexpected, and there are several risks involved," said Geoffrey Yu, currency analyst at UBS in London. "Some countries hold sterling as a reserve currency, albeit small, so there could be massive selling of that, as well as concerns about debt servicing given Britain is highly leveraged and depends on foreign financing," he said. "We have revised the outlook on the UK to negative due to our view that, even assuming additional fiscal tightening, the net general government debt burden could approach 100 percent of GDP and remain near that level in the medium term," S&P's credit analyst David Beers said in a statement. The GBP/USD is currently trading at $1.5765 as of 8:53am, London Time. The dollar may weaken to 90 yen should it fall below a March low of 93.54 yen, said Masashi Hashimoto, a currency analyst at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd., citing trading patterns. Should the U.S. currency keep declining below its March 19 low, the next level of so-called support would be 92.60 yen, a 61.8 percent retracement of the rally from January to April, Tokyo-based Hashimoto said. The currency may then move toward a low of 90 yen, he said, based on a so-called “head-and- shoulders” formation that peaked at 101.44 yen on April 6. A head and shoulders is formed when a currency makes three consecutive peaks, with the middle being the highest. The neckline is drawn across the base of the three peaks. Support refers to an area where buy orders may be placed. The USD/JPY is currently trading at 94.20 as of 9:01am, London Time.

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