The yen was set to strengthen against the dollar, despite expectations that U.S. interest rates will rise this year, a foreign-exchange strategist at JPMorgan told CNBC.
The first reason that the dollar wasn't likely to flex its muscles against the yen was that the U.S. Federal Reserve just isn't that gung ho, Jonathan Cavenagh, head of emerging market Asia foreign-exchange strategy at JPMorgan, told CNBC's "Street Signs" on Friday.
"While [the minutes were] sounding hawkish through some parts of the Fed, overall we don't think there's necessarily going to be an aggressive Fed tightening cycle, particularly in the first half of this year," he said.
The Fed minutes, released on Wednesday, show officials discussed parts of the White House's expected policies during their Jan. 31-Feb. 1 meeting and that they expected to raise interest rates again "fairly soon."
But the markets appear to be forecasting that the Fed isn't likely to move at its next meeting in March, potentially waiting as long as June. Cavenaugh said JPMorgan expected this year's first hike wouldn't be until May. [Read more... http://snip.ly/01u5h ]