DJ Forex Focus: Yen Carry Trades Likely To Resume

Trading in the Japanese currency may prove a little more choppy than it was before - given continued background concerns about the meeting of the Group of Seven leading industrial nations in Essen, Germany, Feb. 9-10 - and losses may not be so heavy against the Australian and New Zealand dollars this time around, but against the dollar and the euro there is little reason to see much change. "We are not reducing our long dollar/yen and euro/yen positions ahead of the G7 meeting," said Monica Fan, head of global foreign-exchange strategy at RBC Capital Markets in London. Concern that G7 finance ministers and central bankers might take some coordinated action to stop the yen's decline had helped to discourage carry trades over the last week or so as European officials complained about the economic risks posed by the yen's decline against the euro.