Swiss Franc elavated on economy fear, yen on BOJ watch

The Swiss franc hit a fresh record high against the euro while the Aussie fell in early Asian trade on Friday as mounting fear of an economic quagmire in the United States and Europe prompted investors to dump risky assets and seek shelter in safe-haven currencies.
A strongly risk-averse mood after a massive fall in U.S. shares on Thursday also pushed the Japanese yen above a three-week low after Japan's yen-selling intervention, but concerns that Japan could intervene again kept the yen in check for now.
"The focus today is on whether Japanese authorities will intervene again," said Masafumi Yamamoto, chief FX strategist at Barclays Capital.
"Market players may not want to move their positions too much ahead of the payroll data and take a wait-and-see stance. Nonetheless, Japanese authorities may want to lift the dollar in advance to prepare for poor reading in the payroll," Yamamoto said, referring to the U.S. job data due at 1230 GMT.
Many market players feel that a weak reading there could fan speculation that the Federal Reserve may signal the need to take additional easing measures after its policy meeting next week after the Swiss, Japanese and the European central banks took easing steps this week.
The dollar was traded at 79.22 yen , off Thursday's three-week high of 80.25 yen after Japan's aggressive intervention.
Wariness about Japanese intervention could keep the dollar above 79 yen for now, a Japanese bank trader said.
The Swiss franc continued to attract safe-haven bids, hitting a fresh record high against the euro, and edged close to a record high versus the dollar, recovering most of its losses after the Swiss central bank's surprise rate cut on Wednesday to stem the franc's strength.
The single currency dropped to as low as 1.0710 francs . The dollar fetched 0.7640 franc , near the record low of 0.7610 hit on Wednesday.
The euro slipped to fresh three-week low of $1.4059 in Asian trade on Friday as there was no sign of a let-up in an exodus from Italian and Spanish bonds.
The European Central Bank surprised many market players by broadening its liquidity operations as it revived its bond buying programme in the secondary market by purchasing Portuguese and Irish bonds.
But some market players said those measures, coupled with comments from ECB chief Jean-Claude Trichet that there were high level of uncertainties, only made investors think that economic conditions in Europe may be deteriorating more quickly than they had anticipated.
There were some bids around $1.40, however, a 76% retracement of its rally last month.
The Australian dollar fell 0.3% in early trade to a six-week low of $1.0425 as investors fled risk assets, with support seen at $1.0390-95, its June 27 low and 50% retracement of its rally after the earthquake.