Yen Rises on Speculation Exporters Buying, Stocks Paring Gains

Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- The yen rose for the first time in three days on speculation Japanese exporters bought the currency after it fell to a one-month low against the dollar.

The currency also reversed a decline as Asian stocks pared gains, prompting investors to trim holdings of higher-yielding assets funded in yen. The dollar fell on concern a government report this week will show retail sales dropped for a seventh month in January. The pound may fall after the Confederation of British Industry, the U.K.’s biggest business lobby, published a survey that showed 63 percent of U.K. companies said access to credit worsened in the last three months.

“There’s talk that exporters are purchasing the yen,” said Akifumi Uchida, deputy general manager of the marketing unit at Sumitomo Trust & Banking Co. in Tokyo. “They probably compared the yen’s level today to what it was one month ago, and came into the market to buy.”

The yen rose to 91.75 per dollar as of 11:15 a.m. in Tokyo from 91.89 late in New York on Feb. 6. It earlier reached 92.42, the lowest level since Jan. 8. The currency climbed to 118.79 per euro from 118.85. The pound was little changed at $1.4789, and traded at 87.49 pence per euro from 87.52 pence.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average trimmed its advance to 1 percent after rising as much as 2.2 percent. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 1 percent.

Sales at U.S. retailers probably fell 0.8 percent in January, following a 2.7 percent decline in December, according to a Bloomberg News survey of economists. The Commerce Department will release the report on Feb. 12.