By Oliver Biggadike and Ye Xie Sept. 16 (Bloomberg) -- The yen and dollar fell against most of their major counterparts as an increase in America’s industrial output last month encouraged investors to sell the U.S. and Japanese currencies and buy higher-yielding assets. “The trend is for continued improvement in risk appetite,” said Michael Woolfolk, a managing director in New York at BNY Mellon, the world’s largest custodial bank, with more than $23 trillion in assets under administration. “The dollar remains under pressure.” The yen slid 0.2 percent to 133.76 per euro at 10:59 a.m. in New York, from 133.47 yesterday. Japan’s currency was little changed at 91.08 per dollar, compared with 91.05, after earlier appreciating to 90.13, the strongest level since Feb. 12. The dollar traded at $1.4661 per euro, compared with $1.4658. It earlier reached $1.4714, the weakest since Dec. 18. Australia’s currency increased as much as 1.2 percent to 87.33 U.S. cents and New Zealand’s dollar gained 1.3 percent to 71.40, the highest levels since August 2008. The benchmark rate is 3 percent in Australia and 2.5 percent in New Zealand, compared with as low as zero in the U.S. U.S. industrial production rose 0.8 percent last month, the Federal Reserve said today. The median forecast of 75 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for a 0.6 percent gain. The MSCI World Index added 0.9 percent, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index increased 0.7 percent. The Dollar Index, which tracks the U.S. currency against the euro, yen, pound, Canadian dollar, Swiss franc and Swedish krona, fell 0.2 percent to 76.383, from 76.544 yesterday. It earlier dropped to 76.187, the lowest since Sept. 23, 2008.

Source