FOREX-Safe-haven yen, Swiss franc rally as U.S. stock market falters

The safe-haven yen and Swiss franc on Tuesday gained for a second straight day this week as U.S. stocks stumbled a day after a blistering rally that propelled the
tech-heavy Nasdaq to an all-time high.The yen rose to one-week highs against the dollar, while the Swiss franc climbed to its highest in
more than two months versus the greenback.

Japanese investors have also sold the dollar as they positioned for the likelihood that the Federal
Reserve will take steps to flatten the Treasury yield curve, which has steepened as rates on the long end
rose.

U.S. stocks opened lower as investors cautiously looked ahead to the Fed statement on monetary policy
on Wednesday.  The Nasdaq later reversed losses."Despite the historic rally in the stock market, there's a an enormous amount of risk out there to the
outlook," said Edward Moya, senior market analyst, at OANDA in New York.
    
"As the economy reopens fully, there's going to be a surge, but I don't think that's going to be long
lasting. There are concerns that risk assets are near their peak and we're probably going to see a little
period of consolidation," he added.

In late morning trading, the dollar fell 0.5% against the yen to 107.84 yen, after earlier
touching a one-week low of 107.67 yen.Against the Swiss franc, the dollar dropped 0.8% to 0.9498 franc, after earlier plunging to
0.9496, the lowest since late March.

The euro recovered early losses to trade up 0.4% to $1.1340. The U.S. dollar index fell 0.3% to 96.314.
   
Investors are looking ahead to Wednesday's Fed announcement following a two-day meeting. Speculation
is growing that the U.S. central bank might adopt yield targets on bonds, or some other measures to anchor
long-term yields.
    
Also on Tuesday, commodity currencies reversed their gains against the U.S. dollar.    
    
The Australian dollar was last down 0.8% at US$0.6964. Earlier in the Asian trading session,
it rose to an 11-month high of US$0.7043. The New Zealand dollar fell 0.5% to US$0.6522, off the
four-and-a-half-month high touched earlier.
    
"All the things that have done exceptionally well since March 23 when the Fed made all financial
markets rise again are in reversal today, and the one currency that has gone down against the dollar since
then was the yen," and now the yen is reversing, said Kit Juckes, macro strategist at Societe Generale.
    
"We've had two and a half months of rocking risk-on that's taken equities market further than anybody
would have expected and we're having a big co-ordinated joined-up pause ahead of the Fed meeting," Juckes
said.

Reprinted from Reuters，the copyright all reserved by the original author.