Commodity currencies drop from multi-month highs

21 Oct 2021

Commodity currencies dipped from multi-month highs on Thursday after their rally was impacted by sudden selling against the Yen.

The Australian Dollar moved down 0.2% against the Dollar at $0.7501 after hitting a three and a half-month high of $0.75465 earlier on Thursday. Whereas against the Yen the Australian Dollar fell 0.5% to 85.58 Yen after reaching close to a four-year high of 86.25.

The New Zealand Dollar also declined against the Yen by 0.3% to 82.04 Yen.

In addition, the U.S. Dollar edged down 0.2% against the Yen to 114.12, moving away from its four-year high of 114.695 hit on Wednesday.

“I expect a bit of correction in risk assets ahead of a lot of events coming up in the next week, such as the Bank of Japan’s (BOJ) policy meeting,” said Masaru Ishibashi, joint general manager of Sumitomo Mitsui Bank.

“Ahead of Japan’s election there are a lot of talks that a cheaper Yen is hurting the economy. BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda will be surely asked about it.”

In contrast, the Euro traded flat at $1.1664, Reuters reports, remaining near to Tuesday’s three-week top of $1.1670.

The Pound fell 0.1% to $1.3807 but received support on expectations the Bank of England will hike interest rates next month to curb inflation. Sterling was near its highest levels against the Euro since February last year, at 84.33 pence per Euro.

“It’s as if the BoE is stealing the spotlight from the Fed as it looks likely to raise rates before the Fed,” according to Kyosuke Suzuki, president of Financial algotech company at Ryobi Systems.

“What could be the game changer, though, is if the Fed is also jumping on the bandwagon of global rate hikes much sooner than expected,” he continued.

Moreover, there was little change to the Dollar index at 93.612, barely holding above the three-week low of 93.501.