The safe-haven dollar mostly slipped Monday, with the euro rising back over $1.50, but managed to hold above 14-year yen lows as investors held their breaths on the Dubai debt crisis. The 16-nation euro rose to $1.4993 in late New York trading from $1.4954 late Friday, earlier climbing as high as $1.5083. The British pound dipped to $1.6424 from $1.6479, while the dollar fetched 86.29 Japanese yen from 86.70 yen. On Friday, the dollar briefly fell below 85 yen, its lowest level since July 1995 as debt problems afflicting Dubai shook up the banking sector. Japanese Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii called the yen's surge “a very serious situation.” He added that Tokyo will take action as needed, suggesting that Japan may work with the US and Europe to try to calm foreign exchange markets. On Monday, Bank of Japan Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa acknowledged Japan is in deflation and said he is carefully monitoring foreign exchange levels. The central bank is ready to take steps as needed to maintain financial market stability, he said, according to the Japanese Kyodo News agency. Shirakawa and Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama are expected to meet as early as tomorrow to discuss the “situation,” according to Brown Brothers Harriman analysts. Speculation that the Japanese government or central bank might intervene is helping keep the dollar above the yen lows from Friday, said UBS currency analyst Patrick Ley. In other late trading, the dollar dropped to 1.0570 Canadian dollars from 1.0623 Canadian dollars late Friday, and slipped to 1.0061 Swiss francs from 1.0065 francs. The greenback was also lower against the New Zealand and Australian dollars. Meanwhile, Asian stock markets rebounded Monday from their steep fall last week after the United Arab Emirates moved to contain the fallout from Dubai's debt crisis. Nearly every market traded higher in Asia, with Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average climbing 264.03 points, or 2.9 percent, to 9,345.55. Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 687.00 points, or 3.3 percent, to 21,821.50 and South Korea's Kospi added 2 percent to 1,555.60. Both those markets tumbled nearly 5 percent on Friday. Shanghai's market climbed 3.2 percent, Australia's index was 2.8 percent higher and Taiwan's benchmark rose 1.2 percent.
