LONDON: The dollar was lower against the yen in Asian trade Wednesday, with investors sitting on the sidelines ahead of the Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda’s post policy board meeting news conference.
The dollar USDJPY, -0.04% was at ¥118.98, compared with ¥119.25 late Tuesday in New York.
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Tracking overnight strength in the wake of higher U.S. Treasury yields and supported by the strength in the Nikkei Stock Average NIK, +1.19% , the greenback had an upward bias and rose as high as ¥119.36 mid-morning. The Nikkei closed up 1.1%.
But investors mostly refused to take major action ahead of the outcome of the Bank of Japan’s policy setting meeting, leaving the U.S. currency with no clear direction.
As was widely expected, the central bank stood pat on its policy and painted a rosier picture of economic conditions, keeping a brave face despite recent poor growth data.
The dollar quickly lost momentum, hitting as low as ¥118.88 with some investors disappointed by the central bank’s decision. But the falloff proved to be short-lived with the U.S. currency soon recouping these losses to stabilize above the ¥119-mark in a sign of how strong the appetite for dip buying was.
