Swiss franc stronger ahead of speech

The Swiss franc strengthened Tuesday ahead of a speech by Swiss National Bank Governor Jean-Pierre Roth.

Some analysts expected Mr. Roth to use his remarks to attempt to intervene again to weaken the franc after the Bank took steps to pull the value of the currency down recently.

The Swiss currency traded at SFr1.5258 in relation to the euro in morning trade in New York while it was at SFr1.1274 versus the greenback.

Meanwhile, the yen weakened as more investors were willing to make more risky investments on the hope that new US initiatives to help the economy will be successful, while predictions that Japan could show a trade deficit for another month also hurt the currency.

By shortly after 11 a.m. in New York, the yen had taken back a bit of its losses but still was trading at ¥132.6364 to the euro, at ¥143.7656 to the pound and at ¥98.005 to the US dollar.

The pound was stronger on a report from the Office for National Statistics which showed that consumer prices rose in the UK in February, adding 3.2 percent from the same month last year.

In late morning trade in New York, the pound traded at 92.26p to the euro while it took $1.4671 to buy a pound.

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