Kevin Buckland and Samuel Indyk
LONDON, March 3 (Reuters) – The U.S. dollar was back from 2.5-month highs against the yen and looked set to post its first weekly loss since January against major currencies as traders tried to assess the Federal Reserve monetary policy stance.
* The yen, which is particularly sensitive to long-term interest rate differentials between the United States and Japan, threatened to extend its recent losing streak to seven weeks, even as it strengthened on Friday after yields fall. from a nearly four-month high of around 4.1%.
* Cryptocurrencies were taking a hit as the crisis engulfing Silvergate deepened, after industry heavyweights including Coinbase Global and Galaxy Digital parted ways with the lender as banking partners.
* The dollar index, which measures the performance of the greenback against the yen, the euro and four other currencies, fell 0.24% to 104.71 from 105.36 at the start of the week, its highest level since January 6. Since last Friday, the index has fallen 0.5%.
* Analysts polled by Reuters said the dollar’s recent strength is temporary and the currency will weaken over the course of the year amid an improving global economy and expectations that the Fed will stop raise interest rates well before the European Central Bank.
* For its part, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) is expected to start rolling back extraordinary stimulus some time after Governor Haruhiko Kuroda steps down next month.
* The dollar fell 0.33% to 136.32 yen, after hitting 137.10 during the Asian session, its highest level since Dec. 20. For the week, the dollar remains slightly flat, but any progress would allow it to extend its winning streak since mid-January.
* The euro rose 0.18% to $1.0616, after hitting a nearly two-month low of $1.0533 earlier in the week. Since last Friday, it has increased by 0.7%.
* The British pound added 0.34% to $1.1988, on track for a weekly gain of 0.4%.
* Bitcoin fell 4.5% to $22,403, after hitting a 2.5-week low at $22,000. Ether fell 4.7% to $1,570.30, after touching $1,543.60, also for the first time since mid-February.
(Reporting by Samuel Indyk in London and Kevin Buckland in Tokyo; Editing in Spanish by Ricardo Figueroa)