By Lisa Twaronite, MarketWatch
TOKYO (MarketWatch) — The dollar fell against major rivals Thursday, slipping against the yen after the Bank of Japan decided to take no new easing steps at its latest policy meeting.
While no measures had been foreseen — and the central bank left its key overnight call rate unchanged, as widely expected — the greenback extended declines late in the Asian session, with no fresh incentives to change direction.
The BOJ offered details of its asset-buying program and cut its growth outlooks. It also moved forward its next policy meeting to Nov. 4-5. The November meeting had previously been scheduled for Nov. 15-16. Read more on Bank of Japan meeting.
Those new dates put the meeting in the immediate wake of the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee meeting on Nov. 2-3. The FOMC is expected to announce new quantitative easing steps.
The dollar (USDYEN 81.2900, -0.4600, -0.5628%) bought ¥81.32, down from ¥81.73 in late North American trading on Wednesday. See real-time currency quotes and tools.
The dollar index (DXY 77.75, -0.40, -0.51%) , which measures the U.S. unit against a basket of six major currencies, fell to 77.754 from 78.138 late Wednesday.
The euro (EURUSD 1.3830, +0.0066, +0.4795%) rose to $1.3832 from $1.3762 late Wednesday and the British pound (GBPUSD 1.5833, +0.0060, +0.3804%) rose to $1.5810 from $1.5758.
