Monday Asia trade saw the yen rising against its rivals, as concerns about the Chinese growth prompted investors to seek shelter.
Fears over China’s growth as the country’s stock selloff poured into Monday’s session pushed investors to buy the yen as a haven. Falling crude-oil prices and selling on emerging-market currencies also bruised market sentiment.
The U.S. dollar was last at ¥121.02 compared with ¥121.96 late Friday in New York, after hitting as low as ¥120.73 in Tokyo, its lowest since July 9.
The yen was also higher against commodity-dependent currencies:
The Australian dollar, sensitive to stock market swings
and China economic expansion, dropped to ¥86.95, its lowest since Aug. 30, 2013,
before bouncing back to ¥87.5599 midday.
The New Zealand dollar also
fell to ¥79.87 from ¥81.60.
The Japanese currency was also stronger against the single currency, which dropped to
¥138.53 from ¥139.00 Friday.
The pound was at ¥189.32 from
¥191.53.
China’s shares wiped out all of this year’s gains, fanning fears about
the deepening effects of a slowdown in the world’s No. 2 economy. The
Shanghai Composite Index was last down 8.31%.
Elsewhere in Asia, stocks were also weaker. The Japanese Nikkei closed down 4.6% to 18,540.88, extending
the series of losses to a fifth straight session.
Worries that the vulnerable Chinese economy may be a reason for delaying the Fed rate hike is lowering the appetite for the greenback.
The dollar has already been under selling pressure, as
Fed policy-meeting minutes released this month indicated that central-bank
officials still haven’t settled on if to raise rates in September.
EUR/USD was last at1.1466, higher 0.72%.
