After three days without financial activities in Japan due to a national holiday, speculations suggested that Japanese capital invest abroad was repatriated today before the end of the fiscal year’s first half in Asia’s wealthiest nation, improving the yen’s sentiment in foreign-exchange markets.

The dollar changed its losing trend after the Federal Reserve brought pessimism regarding the economic recovery in North America back to trading markets, attracting investors once again to the relative safety of the greenback.

Canada has been one of the fastest economies to recover from the recession that impacted the world last year, but the Bank of Canada is stressing on the fact that strong currency may delay the economic rebound in the country, affecting traders’ sentiment towards the loonie.

The dollar proved itself unable to resist a new wave of risk appetite this week that set the greenback to the lowest levels in 2009 versus several currencies in virtually all economic regions in the world, as traders are confident to take risks and purchase higher-yielding options.

The British currency managed to revert a downtrend versus the dollar, euro, and several other main traded currencies after the Bank of England signaled it will not continue its asset purchase program, one of the greatest responsible for the pound losses this year.

The South African rand erased losses from the beginning of the way today on speculations that interest rates in country will not be cut, raising attractiveness for the high-yield profile of the South African currency.

The Brazilian currency was one of those which benefited today from a growing optimism in stocks and commodities markets, attracting traders to emergent markets and setting the highest rate for the Brazilian currency versus the greenback since the global slump started last year.

The kiwi, how often the New Zealand currency is referred to, touched an eleven-month high versus the greenback and gained versus most of the 16 main traded currencies as international and domestic factors raised attractiveness for the high-yield profile of the South Pacific currency.

After gaining slightly versus most of the 16 main traded currencies yesterday as stocks fell and risk appetite declined, today market trends reverted, attracting investors to yield and setting a new record low for the dollar versus the euro in 2009.

Domestic and International events brought the Brazilian currency down today after touching the highest rate in one year last week, suffering the consequences of corrective movements in trading markets combined with a degree of pessimism.