The trend reversal observed shortly after 3 p

While currency traders questioned the credit should be given to information that the Japanese authorities could strongly reduce their interventions on the market of the Exchange, the Bank of Japan (BoJ) shined by his absence the past hour. Yesterday, the dollar fell to 106,40 yen and the euro up to 130,79 Yen in session without triggering the slightest reaction on the part of the Institute of issue. Later in the day, the greenback was worth 106,64 yen, against 108,18 Wednesday evening. The euro is, for its part, back above its levels of the previous day, to 132,33 yen.

Statistics according to which the Japanese sold 1.108 billion yen of foreign bonds and 200 billion yen of foreign shares, while non-residents have acquired 129,6 billion yen of Japanese shares last week, may have contributed to the strengthening of the Japanese currency.

But it is mainly the debate about interventions is excited the market. The Deputy Minister of finance, Masakzu Hayashi, reiterated yesterday that Tokyo take "appropriate measures" in "quick speculative movements." And the head of characterize the movement of the last days of "quick". But, after the comments of the Minister of finance, these threats have little impressed. Sadakazu Tanigaki said that sales of yen were not designed to keep the yen at a specific level against the dollar. The day before, he had emphasized that the authorities could not intervene indefinitely.

The euro remains under pressure

For the exchange of Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein team, non-intervention from the BoJ could be explained by another phenomenon. On the futures market, the short positions in the short term were still net sellers in yen the week. "We believe that the BoJ knows perfectly that an intervention in such circumstances would be only a limited impact." In other words, according to these analysts, Institute of emission would currently the yen recover to force the short sellers to unbuckle their positions. "We do not therefore believe that the BoJ has set a maximum level for the yen, although 105 to 1 dollar likely to remain as the level of alert on market screens, but she prefers more conditions before coming on the market."

In fact, weakened against the yen, the euro remained under pressure against the dollar in the first part of session. However, the ambient climate of nervousness, created by the carnage in Madrid last week, is conducive to the rumours and high volatility. The trend reversal observed shortly after 3 p.m. evidenced. The discovery of a suspicious package finally safe that affected Eurostar traffic and news of the arrest by British police of a man suspected of terrorism on the local rail network did fly.

The euro suddenly flew 1,2250, 1,2408. The single currency is however remained locked in the range of fluctuation ranging from 1,2160 to 1,2460 in which it operates since the beginning of the month.

In this context of fears of new attacks, these are primarily the Swiss franc and gold (see below) who played the role of values refuge. In the late afternoon, the dollar exchanged 1,2539 Swiss franc, withdrawal of 1.97 from the previous day. Meanwhile, the pound sterling, rising after figures for retail sales ( 6.5 in February after 6.9 in January) have reinforced the expectation of future rate hikes, has not folded. Quite the contrary. It stood at 1,8363 dollar, against 1,8156 Wednesday afternoon.

The aversion to the risk of investors is also illustrated side actions. Already in the red, European stock markets have increased their losses. In Paris, the CAC 40 index thus concluded down 1.81, to 3.589,98 points. Across the Atlantic, at the close, the Dow Jones assigned 0.04, to 10.295,78 points. Finally, the performance of the loan of State 10 years relaxed 2 basis points at 3,707, despite the publication of a price index production increased by 0.6 in January.