Yen recovers as winter drags vaccine hopes

The safe-haven Japanese yen recorded a one-week peak, while a strong U.S. dollar rose above commodity currencies on Wednesday. The series of increase came as newly implemented restrictions across the United States and Europe dampened investors’ vaccine-driven sentiment.

The yen, currently quoted at 104.04 per dollar, salvaged nearly two-thirds of the losses it made last week following Pfizer’s vaccine breakthrough. Meanwhile, safe-haven asset Bitcoin breached $18,000 for the first time in nearly three years. Apart from Yuan, other risk-sensitive Asian currencies dipped.

Global coronavirus cases had seen an increase, with hospitalization records reaching new highs. In addition to this, several states in the U.S. reimplemented tighter coronavirus restrictions on mass gatherings.