Investing.com - The dollar was trading close to four-year highs against the yen on Monday after the Bank of Japan began a new round of aggressive monetary easing measures aimed at beating deflation in the world’s third-largest economy.
During European morning trade, the dollar rose to its highest level since May 2009 against the yen, with USD/JPY advancing 1.48% to 98.95.
The yen weakened across the board after the BoJ conducted its first government bond purchasing operation, saying it purchased JPY1 trillion of bonds with maturities of between five and 10 years, and JPY200 billion of bonds maturing in more than 10 years.
The dollar was slightly lower against the euro, with EUR/USD easing up 0.10% to 1.3016.
The euro’s gains were limited amid uncertainty over Portugal after the country’s constitutional court blocked parts of the government’s austerity plan.
Market sentiment was also dented after data on Friday showing that the U.S. economy added fewer than expected jobs in March raised doubts over the strength of the U.S. economic recovery.
The dollar was higher against the pound, with GBP/USD slipping 0.18% to 1.5316 and was almost unchanged against the Swiss franc, with USD/CHF inching up 0.02% to 0.9341.
The greenback was little changed against its Canadian, Australian and New Zealand counterparts, with USD/CAD edging up 0.06% to 1.0179, AUD/USD dipping 0.08% to 1.0382 and NZD/USD inching down 0.03% to trade at 0.8431.
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was up 0.11% to 82.77.
Germany was to release official data on industrial production later in the day.
