MW: Dollar stays soft against yen after BOJ Kuroda remarks
The dollar stayed low against the yen on Friday after Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda offered a slightly more upbeat outlook on the country’s economy.
The dollar USDJPY, -0.05% was at ¥120.80 after dropping to ¥120.71, down from ¥121.02 late Thursday in New York.
As was widely expected, the BOJ left its policy framework unchanged by keeping the bank’s annual asset purchases at ¥80 trillion ($660 billion). The BOJ last expanded its easing measures in October.
Slightly tweaking its assessment, the central bank said the world’s third-largest economy “continues to recover moderately,” which was interpreted by market participants as a sign to put a lid on hopes for more BOJ easing.
This was also one of the key takeaways from Kuroda’s post-meeting news conference, where the central bank governor dismissed concerns about Japan’s slow economic recovery and said there’s no need for further easing measures.
Meanwhile, the ICE dollar index DXY, -0.39% gave up 0.4% to 94.88, extending losses from Thursday, when a trio of weak economic reports added to concerns about the timing of the Federal Reserve’s first interest-rate increase since 2006. The WSJ Dollar index BUXX, -0.15% lost 0.3% to 85.37.
The euro EURUSD, +0.4679% rose to $1.1190 from $1.1112, while the pound GBPUSD, -0.2043% slipped to $1.5642 compared with $1.5661 on Thursday.
