Yen spikes to 15-year high against U.S. dollar

Fear of recession in the United States sent global investors fleeing to shelter in the yen. The Japanese currency hit a 15-year high against the shrinking greenback yesterday, rising to 83.7 per dollar as of writing.

Over here, the dollar gained 0.3% against the shekel to NIS 3.78 yesterday, while the yen gained 0.7% against the shekel to NIS 4.5 per 100 yen.

The yen has been rising steadily against the dollar for four months because of concerns that the American economic recovery is faltering.

Yesterday the yen appreciated against all of its 16 main trading partners in the global foreign currency arena. Against the euro, the yen gained a hefty 1.9% yesterday to 106.43 per euro. Concerned that the yen's strength will hurt exporters, yesterday Japanese Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda said measures would be taken "when needed" to curb its climb.

Even though the dollar was not the flavor of the day yesterday, the euro shrank by 1.2% against it, to 1.2725 dollars per euro, because of dismaying information on the German manufacturing sector.