The dollar advanced to a one-month high against the yen on n Monday, tracking its weekend gains after U.S. Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen signaled an interest-rate rise was likely coming soon. The dollar USDJPY, +0.80% strengthened to ¥111.15 in the early afternoon Asia session, its highest since April 28, and remaining at those levels throughout Europe’s trading day. This compares with ¥110.38 late Friday in New York. Yellen, speaking at an event at Harvard University, said it would be appropriate for the Fed to raise rates “gradually and cautiously� if the economy and the labor market continued to improve. “From earlier in the morning, there has been [dollar] buying from Tokyo-based investors who missed a chance to buy,� after Yellen’s remarks Friday, said Osao Iizuka, head of foreign-exchange trading at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. Iizuka said the dollar was unlikely to climb smoothly and might temporarily stay directionless because of selling on recovery. “I think the dollar will likely increase slowly over time,� said Iizuka, adding that there would be investors who need to buy if the dollar breaches ¥111.80-¥111.90, the level it was at in late April before the Bank of Japan decided to hold fire at its policy-setting meeting. “It all depends on events later this week,� said Kengo Suzuki, chief foreign-exchange strategist at Mizuho Securities, including the release of U.S. jobs data for May on Friday and Tokyo’s decision on whether to delay a planned sales-tax increase. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Saturday reportedly told top government officials of his plans to delay the tax increase. National broadcaster NHK reported that Abe told Finance Minister Taro Aso and Sadakazu Tanigaki, secretary general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, that he intends to postpone the raising of the national sales tax from April 2017 to October 2019. Read: MIzuho CEO warns of repercussions if Japan delays sales-tax hike In other currency-pair trading, the euro EURUSD, +0.2339% was at $1.1144 from $1.1115. The common currency EURJPY, +1.05% was at ¥123.86 from ¥122.53. The WSJ Dollar Index BUXX, +0.13% a measure of the dollar against a basket of major currencies, was up 0.12% at 87.91.

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