The Japanese yen strengthened across the board on Monday morning in New York as investors flee from riskier-assets and seek the perceived safe-haven yen after the credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s cut its ratings outlook on the U.S. to negative from stable.
While S&P kept its Triple-A rating on the world’s largest economy, the outlook cut reflects the material risk that Congress will fail to address budget concerns by 2013.
“More than two years after the beginning of the recent crisis, U.S. policymakers have still not agreed on how to reverse recent fiscal deterioration or address longer-term fiscal pressures,” said Standard & Poor’s credit analyst Nikola G. Swann.
As of now, the yen is trading at new multi-week highs of 82.50 against the US dollar, 134.29 against the pound, 117.64 against the euro, 85.33 against the Canadian dollar and 86.49 versus the Australian dollar. The yen also traded a fresh multi-day highs of 92.19 against the Swiss franc and 64.80 against the NZ dollar around 10:15 am ET.