Dollar Tumbles vs Yen in Tokyo after U.S. Bank Failures

Tokyo, March 13 (Jiji Press)--The dollar tumbled below 135 yen in Tokyo trading Monday morning, following the collapses of U.S. banks including Silicon Valley Bank.

At 11 a.m., the dollar stood at 134.72-73 yen, down from 136.41-41 yen at 5 p.m. Friday. The euro was at 1.0668-0668 dollars, up from 1.0594-0595 dollars, and at 143.73-73 yen, down from 144.47-49 yen.

Market players moved to buy yen for dollars due to concerns over a slowdown of the U.S. economy in the wake of the U.S. bank failures, market sources said. Also behind the flurry of dollar selling was the U.S. Labor Department's announcement Friday that the U.S. jobless rate rose to 3.6 pct in February from 3.4 pct in the preceding month after seasonal adjustment.

"Caution over the course of the U.S. economy grew rapidly, prompting purchases of the yen and the Swiss franc, which are regarded as safe assets," an official at a major securities company said.

Selling took the upper hand on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Monday morning, with the key Nikkei average of 225 selected issues listed on the Prime section falling to as low as 27,631.53 at one point, down 512.44 points, or 1.82 pct, from Friday.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]