Tokyo, June 6 (BridgeNews) - Dollar/yen and euro/yen moved higher Wednesday morning, helped by aggressive buying from U.S. names. In addition, aggressive Australian dollar buying against yen after the stronger than expected Australian fist quarter GDP put extra downside pressures on yen. However, profit taking selling pressures above the 120.50 area weighed on dollar/yen.
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Asian Close NY Close Previous Asian Close Asian Range
(1200 JT) (1500 ET) (1500 JT) (1200 JT)
USD/JPY 120.35 120.28 119.32 120.17-120.62
EUR/USD 0.8517 0.8543 0.8446 0.8511-0.8530
EUR/JPY 102.64 102.80 100.77 102.32-102.76

After having hovered in a narrow range, dollar/yen rose from 120.20 to 120.48, led by aggressive Auatralian dollar/yen buying after the strong GDP data for Q1. Relatively heavy selling was conducted around the 120.30 area, but the selling was soon absorbed by aggressive buying from U.S. names.
Stop loss buying of dollar/yen was triggered at 120.50, underpinning the dollar/yen. U.S. names remained heavy buyers of dollar/yen and euro/yen in Wednesday's session, which bolstered the pair. Inter-bank players sold dollar/yen after trigger of stops at 120.50 for profit taking.
This, coupled with the selling from exporters, weighed down on the dollar/yen through the end of the morning session.
Earlier, there was a report that Minister of Finance Masajyuro Shiokawa said he would like to see dollar/yen at 121.00. The comment aroused some interest among dealers, but dealers we contacted mentioned that it did not lead to price action in the dollar/yen. Later MOF Shiokawa denined having said that he wants dollar/yen at 121.
7 Euro/dollar dipped to 0.8514 after failing to break Tuesday's high of 0.8549. Dealers said the market was a bit long, but 0.8510 was expected to hold.
Momentum players took some profit at 0.8545 and Swiss names were buying dollar/Swiss Franc.
Euro/yen dipped to 102.32 as Euro/dollar came off, before bouncing to 102.76 as dollar/yen rallied. It was unable to break the overnight high at 102.83. It was also restrained by profit taking from momentum players, but found keen demand from U.S. names.
Dollar/Swiss Franc bounced from 1.7760 to 1.7809, helped by the buying from Swiss names. Cable stalled in the 1.4120-40 area.
The Australian dollar surged from 0.5090 to 0.5155 against U.S. dollar on stronger than expected GDP data. Q1 GDP came in at 1.1% on quarter and 2.1% on year, compared with expectations of 0.5% and 1.4% respectively. A major U.S. investment bank bought Australian dollar/yen.