Dollar and yen lifted by haven demand Haven currencies were in demand on Wednesday morning as the US dollar and the Japanese yen strengthened against their major counterparts amid concerns over how far global central banks could stimulate growth. The dollar rose against the euro, the pound and the Australian dollar and fell against the yen amid risk aversion in the currency markets. Events the previous day continued to overshadow forex trading, after the head of the Philadelphia Federal Reserve said that further monetary easing in the US would not create jobs and German, Dutch and Finnish finance ministers released a statement arguing the eurozone should not bail out banks with legacy issues. The euro lost support around the $1.29 level and traded firmly below $1.29 for most of the morning, hitting a session low of $1.2856 - a loss of 0.3 per cent. "We appear to be returning to a phase of complacency with politicians more comfortable with airing disagreements given that peripheral sovereign yields have contracted so much," said analysts at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi. Disappointment is setting in and that could serve to undermine the euro further. The pound fell 0.2 per cent to $1.6149 while the Australian dollar fell 0.5 per cent to $1.0338. Sterling also continued to rise against the euro ahead of a currency fix due on Friday related to a payment to UK farmers under the EU's Common Agricultural Policy. The pound gained 0.2 per cent to €1.2576. Currency investors were also keeping an eye on the Swedish krona ahead of key data releases on the Swedish economy. "Sweden's consumer and manufacturing confidence data tend to get little attention, but we suspect poor figures could see investors add to Swedish krona shorts," said analysts at Citigroup. The US dollar rose 0.5 per cent to SKr6.60. Meanwhile, the yen rose against other major currencies and the US dollar on haven demand, as the dollar dipped 0.2 per cent to a session low of Y77.60.