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 In his first major speech to Greece's parliament, Prime Minister
Alexis Tsipras on Sunday laid out plans to dismantle the "cruel"
austerity program imposed on it by international lenders. He ruled
out any extension of the country's bailout, setting himself on a
collision course with his European partners.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel will meet U.S. President Barack
Obama later in the day to discuss the conflict in Ukraine, where
nine troops and seven civilians have been killed in the past 24
hours alone.
The yen, seen as a safe haven at times of heightened investor
anxiety, gained around half a percent against the dollar to trade at
118.55 yen <JPY=>. It fell 1.4 percent on Friday as the greenback
rallied on robust U.S. jobs data.
Against the euro, the yen gained around 0.5 percent to trade at 134
yen <EURJPY=>, having also been given a boost by strong Japanese
consumer sentiment data and by comments from a Bank of Japan
policymaker, who said the country would not slip back into
deflation.
Jane Foley, a senior currency strategist at Rabobank in London, said
it was likely that the Japanese currency was in part being driven
higher by small correction in the dollar.
"You could certainly argue that with the Ukrainian situation and the
Greek situation, people are unlikely to walk too far away from the
yen," she said. "But then if you argue that, it's quite difficult to
say why dollar/yen went up so much on Friday."
The dollar index, an indication of the greenback's performance
against a basket of major currencies, edged up 0.2 percent to
94.685, having gained more than 1 percent on Friday after the U.S.
employment figures.
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The euro gave up earlier gains to trade 0.3 percent down at $1.1279,
having already lost more than 1.5 percent against the dollar on
Friday.
"The overall picture (for the euro) is still very negative and the
position between Greece and the EU doesn't seem to have improved ...
so any rebounds are going to provide a good selling opportunity,"
said Ian Stannard, Morgan Stanley's head of European FX strategy.
Euro zone finance ministers meet at the Eurogroup gathering on
Wednesday, at which the Greek finance minister has said he will
present a comprehensive proposal. The European Council meeting takes
place the following day.
The euro has been volatile this month as hopes that Greece could win
swift relief from its creditors alternated with worries a deal
cannot be reached, raising the prospect of Greece leaving the euro.
(Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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