Dollar Rallies as Takaichi Reportedly Negative on BOJ Rate Hike

Tokyo, Feb. 24 (Jiji Press)–The dollar rose above 156 yen in late Tokyo trading on Tuesday, following a newspaper report that Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi expressed a negative view about a further interest rate hike when she met with Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda earlier this month. At 5 p.m., the greenback stood at 156.09-10 yen, up from 155.49-50 yen at the same time Friday. The euro was at 1.1778-1779 dollars, up from 1.1750-1751 dollars, and at 183.86-90 yen, up from 182.72-73 yen. The Tokyo market was closed Monday for a national holiday. The U.S. currency topped 156 yen for the first time since Feb. 10, after the Mainichi Shimbun daily published the report on its website on Tuesday afternoon. Earlier in the day, the dollar traded around 155 yen. It had dropped as low as around 154 yen in overseas trading the previous day due to uncertainty over U.S. tariff policy. On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs. In response, the Trump administration imposed additional 10 pct tariffs on all imports to replace the reciprocal tariffs. The president has also indicated that the additional tariffs will be raised to 15 pct. Meanwhile, the benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average closed at 57,321.09 on Tuesday, up 495.39 points, or 0.87 pct, from Friday, despite hefty losses on Wall Street overnight. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]