Investing.com - The yen held slightly stronger against the dollar on Friday in Asian trade ahead of central bank board minutes and price pointing data sets in Japan and China.
USD/JPY traded at 101.46, down 0.07%, as the Bank of Japan gets set to release the minutes of its March 10-11 policy board meeting. The minutes along with March CGPI data, as well as money stock, are all due at 0850 Tokyo time (2350 GMT).
CGPI is forecast at up 1.7% on year, which would be the 12th straight year-on-year rise, but slower than a gain of 1.8% in February and a 2.5% rise in January on weaker commodity prices.
Then at 0930 in Beijing, China's March CPI and PPI data are expected.
Consumer prices are expected to gain 2.5% year-on-year from a 2.0% gain in February impacted by the Chinese New Year. Producer prices are expected to be down 2.2% in March versus February's 2.0% decline, which would be the 25th straight month of declines and underscore overcapacity problems in China.
Overnight, the dollar weakened against most major currencies as investors continued to avoid the greenback after the minutes from the Federal Reserve's March policy meeting revealed monetary authorities are concerned with soft consumer prices.
The Federal Reserve Board of Governors unanimously voted to scrap a threshold that would hike interest rates once the unemployment rate hits 6.5%, according to the minutes of the Fed's March policy meeting released on Wednesday, a sign monetary authorities are growing concerned over low inflation rates.
In the past, the Fed had indicated rates were set to rise when the unemployment rate hits 6.5% provided that figure accompanied a 2.5% inflation rate.
Today, the headline unemployment rate stands at 6.7%, not far from the previous threshold, though labor markets remain slack and inflation remains well below 2.5%.
The Federal Reserve's decision to do away with its rate-hike threshold left markets convinced that interest rates will remain low for some time to come, even after the U.S. central bank winds down monetary stimulus programs.
Low borrowing costs weaken the dollar.
The minutes also indicated general concerns among monetary authorities over persistently low inflation rates.
Elsewhere on Thursday, the Labor Department reported that the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending April 4 fell by 30,000 to 300,000, the lowest since May of 2007, from the previous week’s upwardly revised total of 332,000.
Analysts had expected jobless claims to decline to 320,000, though the numbers did little to boost the dollar.
Meanwhile in the euro zone, Greece made a successful return to the financial markets on Thursday, raising €3 billion in its first bond auction since 2010, when Athens sought its first bailout.
The Bank of England left the benchmark interest rate unchanged at 0.50% earlier Thursday, in a widely anticipated move.
The US Dollar Index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was flat at 79.48.
On Friday, the U.S. is to round up the week with data on producer price inflation and the preliminary report on the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index.