The euro moved ahead against the dollar this afternoon as the greenback spiked against the yen after Japan intervened to depress its currency in a bid to help exports. At 1720, the euro was trading up at USD1.1664, after having hit the USD1.17 level earlier in the session, while against sterling, the single currency was up at STG0.7007. Japan's Minister of Finance Watanabe confirmed the agency used the New York Fed today to sell yen for dollars in an attempt to stem the yen's rise, according to several reports and analysts.
Officials have said in recent days that the move for the yen to three-year highs on the dollar came about too quickly, sparking market jitters intervention was imminent. The dollar tumbled in the wake of the Group of Seven's call for more flexible exchange rates, read by financial markets as a warning to Japan to let its currency appreciate against the dollar. The dollar was recently up 0.6pc on the yen at 111.41 yen, after hitting a three-year low at 110.12 yen. Earlier, the dollar retested a fresh three-year-low versus the yen at 110.28 and the euro rose close to the USD1.17 mark at one point. //www.fxcentre.com/