Corrects to say ‘previous sessions’ instead of session in paragraph 8
S&P 500 down slightly in early trading
US dollar up against the yen, at 38-year high
Investors on alert for yen intervention
By Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK, June 26 (Reuters) – The dollar hit a fresh 38-year high against the Japanese yen on Wednesday, with investor speculation high that Japanese authorities could intervene to strengthen the currency, while global stock indexes were mostly lower.
Japan’s top currency diplomat, Masato Kanda, said Japanese authorities were “seriously concerned and on high alert” about the yen’s rapid decline.
In April, a fall to 160.245 per dollar was enough to prompt Tokyo to spend roughly 9.8 trillion yen to support the yen.
The latest slide followsThe Bank of Japan’s (BOJ) decision this month to hold off on reducing bond-buying stimulus until its July meeting.
The dollar was last up 0.6% at 160.62 yen JPY=EBS.
The dollar index =USDwhich measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, gained 0.27% to 105.95, with the euro EUR= down 0.21% at $1.0689.
On Wall Street the Dow and S&P 500 eased as the Nasdaq gained.
artificial intelligence chip leader Nvidia NVDA.O was down slightly. A sell-off in previous sessions wiped $430 billion off its market value.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 128.53 points, or 0.33%, to 38,981.88, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 10.58 points, or 0.19%, to 5,458.72 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC gained 24.56 points, or 0.13%, to 17,740.55.
MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS fell 1.82 points, or 0.23%, to 801.95. The STOXX 600 .STOXX index fell 0.55%.
Investors are looking for clues on how soon the Federal Reserve could begin to cut interest rates.
Fed officials have urged patience on interest rate cuts. Fed Governor Michelle Bowman has reiteratedher view that holding the policy rate steady “for some time” would probably be enough to bring inflation under control.
Yoinvestors await Friday’s release of the US personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, the Fed’s preferred inflation measure, with economists polled by Reuters expecting the annual growth to ease to 2.6% in May.
US Treasury yields rose amid a pick up in inflation in other countries.
On Wednesday, Australia consumer inflation accelerated to a six-month high in May.
The yield on benchmark US 10-year notes US10YT=RR rose 7.4 basis points to 4.312%, from 4.238% late on Tuesday.
US crude CLc1 lost 0.4% to $80.49 a barrel and Brent LCOc1 fell to $84.78 per barrel, down 0.27% on the day.
Additional reporting by Samuel Indyk and Ankur Banerjee; Editing by Shri Navaratnam, Himani Sarkar, Alex Richardson and Gareth Jones
