By Deborah Levine and Sarah Turner, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The dollar declined against the Japanese yen on Monday, giving back some of the gains that took the greenback to a 10-month high last week.
The dollar swung between mild gains and declines against the euro, following a strong U.S. payrolls report on Friday.
The dollar USDJPY -0.3454% bought 82.17 yen, down from ¥82.41 Friday -- it’s highest closing level since last April last year.
The ICE dollar index DXY +0.03% , which measures the greenback against a basket of six currencies, traded at 79.942 from 79.985 in late North American trading on Friday.
Both the U.S. Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan hold policy meetings ending on Tuesday. But the Fed is expected to stand pat with it’s interest-rate and bond-buying policies, while some analysts predict the BOJ will expand its stimulus programs. See story on Fed meeting,
“This highlights the role of diminished expectations for further Federal Reserve easing and higher Treasury yields,” said strategists at BNP Paribas. “Were the Bank of Japan to move again, when they meet on Tuesday, then U.S. dollar/yen gains could well extend.”
The euro was little changed as eyes turned away from Greece and to Portugal, Spain and others.
The euro EURUSD +0.1030% traded at $1.3126, from $1.3115 late Friday.
The shared currency fell by the most since November on Friday after a strong U.S. jobs report and Greece managing to garner enough participation from private investors for a bond swap.
Still, Greece’s legal maneuvers made its restructuring similar to a default. The International Swaps and Derivatives Association on Friday determined that would trigger a payout on credit default swaps, though that was also as analysts widely expected. See more on euro, Greek debt swap.
“It appears that Athens has been taken care of for now. said Kathleen brooks, research director at Forex.com. “Going forward, the focus for markets may keep risk assets slightly muted as investors price in the prospect of missed fiscal targets and weak growth in some of the peripheral countries” that have been supported by the European Central bank’s liquidity injections.
The British pound GBPUSD -0.2043% edged down to $1.5642, from $1.5681.
