The yen regained some of the losses it suffered on Friday with no confirmation of rumours Japan was intervening for the second time this month, Reuters reported. The intervention talk had helped Japanese equities cut their losses on strength in exporter stocks, but the benchmark index drifted lower later in the day. European shares opened lower after latest U.S. jobless claims figures added to persistent concerns that the global economic recovery was still fragile. Britain's FTSE 100 was down 0.3 percent, Germany's DAX fell 0.2 percent, and France's CAC-40 eased as much as 0.4 percent. The MSCI index for Asia ex-Japan stocks was flat following the U.S. jobless data, although the benchmark is up one percent on the week. It is just off a five month peak struck earlier this week. Initial U.S. claims for state unemployment benefits increased 12,000 to 465,000 last week, the Labor Department said on Thursday, breaking two straight weeks of declines. Financial markets had forecast claims steady at 450,000. Japan's Nikkei share average finished down 1 percent after initially climbing on the yen intervention talk. Rising diplomatic tensions between Japan and China also weighed on sentiment. "The Nikkei was only briefly helped by the talk of intervention, especially since it's hard to tell if any such move actually took place," said Koichi Ogawa, chief portfolio manager at Daiwa SB Investments. "There's a lot of risk factors that have suddenly emerged, such as the situation with China, and this is making it very hard for the Nikkei to rise." The dollar rose as high as 85.40 yen from about 84.55 yen in a matter of minutes, and several traders said it looked like the Bank of Japan, which acts on behalf of the Ministry of Finance, had been selling yen. The currency drifted back towards 84.70 yen on the lack of confirmation on government intervention. "Given that this would be the second time (for intervention) and not as much of a surprise, I think the impact would be pretty limited at best," said Masayoshi Okamoto, head of dealing with Jujiya Securities in Tokyo. "Even now, it seems tough for the dollar to hang on to the 85 yen level, and this will make it hard for the Nikkei to rise substantially in turn." Japan intervened on Sept. 15 minutes after the dollar hit a 15-year low of 82.87 yen, selling an estimated 2 trillion yen ($23.70 billion), its largest single-day yen selling intervention. Also pressuring the dollar were shrinking yield gaps between the dollar and the yen. Oil fell below $75 as investor unease about the global economic recovery spread across markets after lacklustre U.S. employment and housing data.
