Investing.com - The dollar was trading at three-and-a-half month lows against the yen on Wednesday after the Bank of Japan left monetary policy on hold as investors looked ahead to Federal Reserve minutes later in the trading day.
USD/JPY was down 0.13% to 101.19, not far from Monday’s low of 101.09, the weakest level since February 5.
The pair was likely to find near-term support at 101.09 and resistance at 101.59, Tuesday’s high.
The BoJ refrained from enlarging its stimulus program as the economy shows signs of weathering the impact of a sales tax increase that came into effect on April 1. The central bank said it will continue to expand the monetary base at a pace of ¥60 trillion to ¥70 trillion per year.
Also Wednesday, official data showed that Japan posted a trade deficit of ¥808.9 billion, compared to a forecast of a deficit of ¥640.0 billion.
Investors were turning their attention to of the minutes from the Fed’s latest monetary policy meeting due out later Wednesday, for insight on the central bank's view of the economy.
Recent U.S. economic reports indicating that the recovery remains uneven have weighed on U.S. Treasury yields, pressuring the dollar lower.
On Tuesday, New York Fed President William Dudley reiterated the central bank’s dovish stance, saying the pace of rate hikes was likely to be “slow”.
The euro was also trading at more than three month lows against the yen, with EUR/JPY down 0.33% to 138.36, the weakest since February 7.
Elsewhere Wednesday, the euro was almost unchanged against the dollar, with EUR/USD at 1.3706.
The euro remained under pressure from mounting expectations for monetary easing by the European Central Bank at its next meeting in June and data last week showing that the euro zone economy grew at a slower than forecast rate in the first quarter.