By Iain Withers and Gregor Stuart Hunter LONDON/SINGAPORE, Jan 23 (Reuters) - The yen traded choppily on Friday with traders nervous that Japanese authorities are close to intervening directly in markets to support their currency, while global stocks held firm after U.S. President Donald Trump's softer stance on Greenland. The Bank of Japan earlier in the day signalled its readiness to continue raising still-low borrowing costs against the backdrop of a politically-charged atmosphere, with the country's snap election next month. And, early in London trading, the yen suddenly swung from a loss to a sudden gain versus the dollar, causing traders to infer some Japanese authorities may have run rate checks with banks -- often used to signal to the market their readiness to intervene to support a currency at 18 month lows to the dollar. Meanwhile, two-year Japanese government bond yields climbed to 1.25% for the first time since August 1996. "The (BOJ's) tone appears hawkish," said David Chao, global market strategist for Asia-Pacific at Invesco in Singapore. "The BOJ has raised four of its six inflation projections and indicated that further rate hikes are likely if these forecasts are realised." Global stocks have clawed back much of the ground lost early in the week on rising tensions between the United States and Europe over Greenland, after President Donald Trump said he would not slap on trade tariffs for now and would not take the territory by force. Global stocks were up 0.1%, while European stocks opened broadly flat. Wall Street futures pointed to falls of between 0.1-0.2%. "Trump is really unpredictable, we know that. We still can have some threats one way or the other... It's sure that the Europeans are still very cautious on this environment," said Marie de Leyssac, portfolio manager at Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management. Some big Northern European investors are increasingly wary of the risks of holding U.S. assets. “What it absolutely does is to heighten risk... It is making us think about cash levels and about our allocations to bonds and equities," said Neil Birrell, chief investment officer at Premier Miton. GOLD NOTCHES ANOTHER RECORD HIGH, OIL GAINS The U.S. dollar index, which measures the currency's strength against a basket of six currencies, was last broadly flat at 98.336, close to its lowest levels of the year after logging its biggest one-day fall in six weeks on Thursday. The dollar was last down 0.2% versus the yen at 158.02. Fed funds futures are pricing an implied 95% probability that the U.S. Federal Reserve will keep rates on hold at its next two-day meeting on January 28, little changed from a day earlier, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool. The yield on the U.S. 10-year Treasury bond was last at 4.2351%. Precious metals markets including gold set new records. Spot gold hit a record $4,967.03 before slipping 0.6% to $4,908. In energy markets, Brent crude futures were last up 1.1% at $64.74 a barrel, steadying after Trump's softer tone towards Greenland and as Iran eased fears of geopolitical risks disrupting supply. (Reporting by Iain Withers in London and Gregor Stuart Hunter in Singapore, additional reporting by Naomi Rovnick; Editing by Christian Schmollinger, Jacqueline Wong and Jane Merriman) (The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)
