i Develop Stocks Advisory

Yen Rises to Highest in Almost Three Years on U.S. Bank Concern The yen rose to the highest in almost three years against the dollar after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said some small U.S. banks may collapse. The currency headed for a second monthly gain after Bernanke told the Senate yesterday ``there probably will be some bank failures,'' prompting investors to cut holdings of higher- yielding assets bought with loans from Japan. The dollar also headed for its biggest monthly loss against the euro since September before a U.S. government report that will probably show consumer spending stayed at the weakest in six months. ``There are renewed concerns over U.S. financial institutions, causing some investors to be risk averse,'' said Hideaki Inoue, chief manager of derivatives and fixed-income investment in Tokyo at Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corp., a unit of Japan's largest publicly traded bank by assets. ``The yen is being bought.'' The yen climbed to 104.58 against the dollar, the strongest since May 2005, before trading at 104.71 as of 11:31 a.m. in Tokyo, from 105.37 late in New York yesterday and 107.17 a week ago. It rose 0.7 percent to 158.98 per euro, the largest gain in three weeks, from 160.10 yesterday and 158.99 last week. The dollar traded at $1.5176 per euro, near the record low of $1.5229 reached yesterday. The currency dropped to 3.1890 versus Malaysia's ringgit and 31.90 against the Thai baht, both the weakest in more than a decade, on speculation rate cuts in the U.S. will prompt fund managers to shift investment into Asia. The Japanese yen gained against all of the 16 most-active currencies today as the MSCI Asia-Pacific Index of regional shares fell 1.2 percent. The yen climbed 0.9 percent to 99.14 versus Australia's dollar, 0.6 percent to 85.43 to New Zealand's dollar and 0.9 percent to 13.8121 against South Africa's rand.