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IMM currency futures up

CHICAGO: IMM currency futures on Friday ended mostly higher, with June yen rallying on sentiment that Japan was on track for a rise in interest rates.

June yen rallied to nearly a six-week high, breaking out of a consolidation band that had been forming this week.

The yen rally began overnight with a report in the Asahi Shimbun that said the Bank of Japan was near changing its monetary policy to allow market interest rates to move up to 25 basis points above the 0.50 percent official discount rate. That is typically seen as a precursor to a discount rate rise.

Denials from Japanese officials and talk of intervention by the Bank of Japan to support the dollar did little to stem the tide of selling cash mark/yen.

Futures traders said the liquidation of cash mark/yen buoyed yen futures and subdued June marks. Trading was brisk, although no massive orders were seen, a trader said.

"The yen was rocking and volume was really good," an IMM trader said, "A lot of it was mark/yen cross activity once that breached the 69.00 pyschological level."

She noted aggressive buy stops in June yen at $0.009480 to $0.009490. June reached as high as $0.009572 before receding late.

June Swiss franc dipped to a fresh contract low early but June mark managed to stay above the low it set Thursday.

June marks posted an inside day on daily bar charts and closed in the middle of the day's range, indicative of consolidation after the recent move to contract lows.

June Australian dollar was strong, keying off both technical strength and followthrough from the yen pit, traders said.

June yen closed up $0.000094 to $0.009533, marks up $0.0020 to $0.6561, Swiss francs up $0.0017 to $0.8142, sterling up $0.0068 to $1.5128, Canadian dollar up $0.0005 to $0.7351, the Australian dollar up $0.0019 to $0.7887, and the Mexican peso down $0.000250 to $0.130100.-Reuter