Dollar higher

SINGAPORE/TOKYO: The dollar advanced against the yen on Monday, after U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the U.S. trade war with China is "on hold", boosting risk sentiment amid hopes for an easing of trade tensions between the world´s two biggest economies.

The dollar rose 0.5 percent to 111.245 yen, hitting a fresh four-month high in Asian trade. The easing of U.S.-China trade tensions is likely to underpin riskier assets such as equities and bodes well for the dollar against the safe-haven yen, said Stephen Innes, head of trading in Asia-Pacific for Oanda in Singapore. "I think equity markets are going to be in a happier place today," Innes said. Japan´s Nikkei share average climbed to 3-1/2-months high, as the weaker yen helped Japanese exporters. Japan is the world’s largest creditor nation and traders tend to assume Japanese investors would repatriate funds at times of crisis, thus pushing up the yen.

The Japanese currency often weakens when investor confidence increases and their appetite for riskier assets strengthens. "Because many dollar/yen sell orders from Japanese exporters have already been cleared at 106-109 levels, I think the dollar could rise to 113 yen soon, without facing much resistance," said Yunosuke Ikeda, chief forex strategist at Nomura Securities in Tokyo.