The yen JPY, often sought by investors as a shelter when riskier assets are under pressure, hit an almost three-year high against the euro EURJPY of 122.43 yen.
Sterling, however, plumbed a seven-year low around $1.3880 on concern Britons might vote to leave the European Union in a June referendum. It last traded at $1.3876 GBP, down 1 percent on the day, and at 78.91 pence per euro EURGBP.
The pound was on track for its worst three-day performance since mid-2009. It has shed almost 3 percent against the dollar this week after several senior members of Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative Party threw their support behind the campaign to leave the EU.
The euro EUR= fell 0.5 percent to $1.0968.
“The euro is getting dragged down by sterling. UK exit risk is not just a UK risk, it’s a European risk as well. That’s challenging its safe-haven status and enhancing that of the Swiss franc and the yen,” said RBC Capital Markets’ head of FX strategy, Adam Cole.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 share index .FTEU3 fell 2.3 percent, led lower by commodity-related stocks SXPP, which fell nearly 6 percent. Britain’s FTSE 100 lost 1.5 percent.
Copper CMCU3 fell, partly on worries about demand from top consumer China, last trading down 1.2 percent at $4,591 a tonne.
Gold XAU= held on to most of Tuesday’s gains, however, and was last at $1,235.86 per ounce.
The post Daily FX Outlook appeared first on Live Trading News.