* Dollar hits six-month high against the yen
* Sterling rises on bets of vaccine-led economic rebound
* Australian dollar, kiwi dollar, Canadian dollar bounce
* Graphic: World FX rates https://tmsnrt.rs/2RBWI5E
(Adds comments, details on sterling, bitcoin)
By Kevin Buckland and Sagarika Jaisinghani
TOKYO, March 1 (Reuters) - The Australian dollar and other
riskier currencies rebounded against the U.S. dollar on Monday,
as a sell-off last week in global bonds on worries about
eventual monetary policy tightening appeared to have eased for
now.
The British pound drew additional support from bets of a
faster vaccine-led economic recovery, while resurgent risk
appetite pushed the safe-haven Japanese yen to a six-month low
versus the dollar.
"The market is overpricing (the chance of a near-term rate
hike)," said Tohru Sasaki, JPMorgan's head of Japan market
research in Tokyo.
"Eventually it's true that if the economy continues to be
strong and if inflationary pressure is getting higher, the
central bank should be normalising the policy rate. But we think
it's too early to do that, so it's a kind of overreaction at
this moment."
The Aussie AUD= jumped 0.6% to $0.7754 in the Asian
session on Monday, following a 2.1% plunge on Friday.
The Reserve Bank of Australia will hold its monthly policy
meeting on Tuesday, and markets are widely expecting it to
reinforce its forward guidance for three more years of near-zero
rates, while also addressing the market dislocation.
The New Zealand dollar NZD=D3 strengthened 0.6% to
$0.7270, recovering some of Friday's 1.9% slide.
Sterling GBP=D3 rose 0.4% to $1.3972 as investors bet a
swift vaccination programme would help lift the British economy
from a deep coronavirus-driven recession.
British finance minister Rishi Sunak is set to announce an
extra 1.65 billion pounds ($2.30 billion) to fund the country's
vaccination roll-out as part of his annual budget statement on
Wednesday. The euro EUR=EBS gained 0.2% to $1.20910, after dropping
0.9% at the end of last week, the most since April.
Against the yen JPY=EBS , the dollar hit a six-month high
of 106.70 before erasing gains.
The dollar index =USD was little changed in Asian trade
after posting its biggest surge since June on Friday.
U.S. bond yields slid sharply on Monday, with the benchmark
10-year U.S. Treasury yield falling about 5 basis points to
1.403% US10YT=RR , off Thursday's one-year high of 1.614%.
US/
Currency markets have taken their cues from the global bond
market, where yields had surged last week in anticipation of a
swift economic rebound and on bets that global central banks
will need to tighten policy much earlier than they have been
forecasting. Equities and commodities also sold off last week as the debt
rout unsettled investors and lifted demand for safe-haven
currencies, including the U.S. dollar. MKTS/GLOB
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who last week repeated
the U.S. central bank would look through any near-term inflation
spike and tighten policy only when the economy was clearly
improving, will speak on the economy at a Wall Street Journal
jobs event on March 4.
Positioning flows indicated dollar net short positions rose
last week after falling to the lowest level since mid-December
the previous week. IMM/FX
In crypto-currency markets, bitcoin BTC=BTSP rose 2% to
$46,155.72 but was still well off a record high of $58,354.14
hit on Feb. 21.
========================================================
Currency bid prices at 0516 GMT
Description RIC Last U.S. Close Pct Change YTD Pct High Bid Low Bid
Previous Change
Session
Euro/Dollar EUR=EBS $1.2081 $1.2070 +0.10% -1.11% +1.2102 +1.2070
Dollar/Yen JPY=D3 106.4950 106.5700 -0.10% +3.07% +106.6950 +106.4000
Euro/Yen EURJPY= 128.65 128.60 +0.04% +1.36% +128.9300 +128.6000
Dollar/Swiss CHF=EBS 0.9085 0.9086 -0.01% +2.70% +0.9089 +0.9060
Sterling/Dollar GBP=D3 1.3976 1.3923 +0.38% +2.30% +1.3998 +1.3931
Dollar/Canadian CAD=D3 1.2706 1.2740 -0.29% -0.24% +1.2734 +1.2689
Aussie/Dollar AUD=D3 0.7748 0.7799 -0.63% +0.74% +0.7772 +0.7706
NZ NZD=D3 0.7271 0.7231 +0.57% +1.27% +0.7287 +0.7234
Dollar/Dollar
All spots FX=
Tokyo spots AFX=
Europe spots EFX=
Volatilities FXVOL=
Tokyo Forex market info from BOJ TKYFX
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World FX rates https://tmsnrt.rs/2RBWI5E
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