Dollar Posts Big Gain Against Yen

The dollar snapped a weeklong decline Thursday with the biggest one-day jump against the yen in nearly two years after Japan’s top foreign-exchange policy-maker said the Japanese currency was too strong.

Traders who had bet on further dollar drops scrambled to buy the dollar instead as it rose on the comments by Eisuke Sakakibara, director of the Finance Ministry’s international finance bureau, early in the trading day.

The resulting surge in demand temporarily pushed the dollar up by more than 4 yen.

Exchange Currency in Dollars Dollar in foreign currency Canada .7224 1.3842 France .1714 5.8360 Germany .5780 1.7300 Great Britain 1.6316 .6129 Italy .000589 1698.85 Japan .008753 114.25 Mexico .125691 7.9560