washingtonlondon the japanese yen further weakened against the dollar on wednesday hovering in a zone that last year triggered intervention while the yuan slipped to a ninemonth trough as concerns mounted about the extent of chinas slowdown the yen has hit the key 145 per dollar level for four sessions now a zone that triggered heavy dollar selling by japanese authorities in september and october last year it last weakened 013 versus the greenback to 14575 per dollar after hitting 145940 earlier in the session a level not seen since november finance minister shunichi suzuki said on tuesday that the authorities were not targeting absolute currency levels for intervention markets are concerned whether the bank of japan will intervene or whether dollaryen needs to go all the way up to 150 said niels christensen chief analyst at nordea they have not been so loud in the last week but the threat of intervention is why the market has been a little bit hesitant to push dollaryen up elsewhere in asia the yuan touched its lowest level since november in both the onshore and offshore markets falling as low as 73379 that extended tuesdays decline following chinese data that missed forecasts and prompted beijing to deliver unexpected cuts to its key policy rates as authorities there sought to shore up an economy that has rapidly lost steam in recent months the australian dollar often used as a liquid proxy for the yuan plumbed ninemonth low in response to the chinese data i really dont think that the backdrop is conducive for a sustained risk rally at this point said bipan rai global head of fx strategy at cibc capital markets not only the china data its also the fact that were dealing with tighter monetary conditions globally and thats going to crimp demand at the margincentral bank watch the pound was up after data showed british core inflation stayed strong in july hitting a high of 12768 and was last up around 045 at 12759 core inflation in britain which strips out volatile energy and food prices remained at 69 in july flat versus the june reading and higher than expectations in a reuters poll for a reading of 68 the dollar index was off 0087 at 103100 though it was not far from an over onemonth peak hit on monday driven by higher bond yields following upbeat us data the euro gained 012 to 10917 the new zealand dollar which had fallen to a ninemonth low of 05932 in early asian trade rebounded after the reserve bank of new zealand policy meeting to trade higher by 011 versus the greenback at 0596 the central bank held its cash rate steady as expected on wednesday but slightly pushed out when it expects to start cutting borrowing costs to 2025 the statement gave a clearly more hawkish tone likely defying any dovish expectations said barclays research analyst shreya sodhani we think todays more hawkish statement and the governors press conference suggest that