Rising Risk Appetite Brings The Yen to Its Lowest Level in a Month, And The Euro is Falling

The euro slipped in thin trade over the Christmas holiday on Wednesday and the dollar pushed the yen to a one-month low as investors shrugged off a spike in omicron infections with renewed risk appetite.

The Australian dollar rose as stocks rose, but the euro bucked the trend, falling 0.2 percent to $1.1287, while the dollar index rose 0.2 percent to 96.321.

With many traders absent due to the Christmas and New Year holidays, analysts say the moves are difficult to explain, but the main driver for markets this week has been continued optimism that the mutated Omicron will not derail the economic recovery.

The dollar rose against the yen, which is considered a safe haven value, by 0.1 percent to 114.98 yen to dollar, its strongest level since late November.

Sterling fell 0.1 percent to $ 1.3420 and rose 0.1 percent against the euro to 84.14 pence.

In Turkey, the lira fell more than 2% to about 12 lira to the dollar.

In terms of cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin lost about six percent of its value to $47,300 late on Tuesday, giving up its gains this week.

Ether fell about 6 percent to $3,760.