The Japanese Yen and Swiss Franc gained against the Dollar on Monday as traders sought safe-haven currencies amid ongoing concerns about tariffs and a potential US economic slowdown.
Meanwhile, the Euro held steady after a strong performance the previous week.
Following a week of volatility, which saw the Euro’s largest weekly gain since 2009 due to Germany’s transformative fiscal reforms, the single currency rose by 0.1% against the Dollar, remaining close to its four-month high as markets awaited further details on European spending.
“We’ve seen a lot of news from Germany on defence and infrastructure, but the feeling is that there’s going to be some follow through,” stated Samy Chaar, chief economist at Lombard Odier.
Furthermore, markets have been closely watching trade tensions as US President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on major trading partners, only to delay some of them for a month due to concerns over a potential US economic slowdown.
This has caused some investors to lose confidence in the US economy, which had previously been outperforming other economies.
In currency futures markets, investors have reduced their net long Dollar positions to $15.3 billion, down from a nine-year high of $35.2 billion in January, Reuters reports.
Indeed, risk-averse investors have turned to the Japanese Yen and Swiss Franc, pushing both currencies to multi-month highs. On Monday, the Yen was up 0.58% at 147.19 per Dollar, just shy of the five-month high of 146.94 it reached on Friday.
“We still favour the JPY to outperform as we think wage discussions and the shunto (spring wage talks) announcement on Friday should solidify the wage-inflation cycle that will keep the BOJ on a hawkish path ahead,” according to Dominic Bunning, global forex strategist at Nomura.
Japan’s real wages dropped in January after two months of modest increases, according to data released on Monday, just days before the annual spring pay negotiations with major companies.
The Bank of Japan is largely expected to maintain its current interest rates during its upcoming policy review on 18th-19th March.
Moreover, the Swiss Franc reached a three-month high of 0.87665 per Dollar on Monday.
Meanwhile, the Dollar index, which tracks the greenback against six others, stood at 103.98, remaining near the four-month low it hit last week.
The Dollar dropped over 3% last week against major rivals, marking its weakest weekly performance since November 2022.