LONDON: The dollar was advanced against the yen in Asian trade Wednesday, as shareholders wait for the results of the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting later in the day, as well as a series of U.S. monetary data.
The dollar USDJPY, +0.17% were at ¥118.11 compared with ¥117.78 late Tuesday in New York.
Amid a lack of fresh cues, the greenback tested its upside twice during the Asia session.
Early in the morning, Singapore’s central bank’s surprise easing of its currency policy to fend off deflationary pressures sent the Singapore dollar into tailspin to its lowest level since August 2010 against the U.S. dollar. That also gave upward momentum to the dollar against the yen.
Later in the session, the U.S. currency got a boost in keeping with the turnaround of the Nikkei Stock Average into a positive territory, pushing up the dollar to as high as ¥118.28 mid-morning. The benchmark Nikkei was up 0.2% midday.
But the dollar then lost its direction later in the session. With investors increasingly sitting on the sidelines ahead of the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee especially the post-meeting statement that could give clues to eventual rates increase as early as later this year.
